SpiderMan: Against All Odds
by Onimiman
Summary: This universe is technically related to the first movie, considering how the 2003 show was a sequel to the 2002 film, so I couldn't find Spider-Man: TNAS in any cartoon or TV show category. I hope you all forgive me and read and review this.
1. Chapter 1

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds

Episode 1: Welcome Back: Part 1

Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson, and Harry Osborn were all sitting at an outside table of the Drip Den, drinking coffee and chitchatting.

"So, guys, how've you been doing so far?" Peter asked after he lowered his cup to the tabletop following a brief sip from the steaming beverage.

Mary Jane lowered her own cup of coffee and then asked, "Well, Peter, you know how I've been into that whole acting gig of mine?"

Peter nodded. "Yeah. What about it?"

Mary Jane took another sip of her coffee and then answered, "Well, because of the last play I did a few weeks ago, my agent was on the phone with someone higher-up, and now, I'm on Broadway."

Peter and Harry's eyes widened at this news. "Really?" Harry asked. "Well, congrats, MJ. Good job."

"What's the first play you'll be doing on Broadway, Mary Jane?" Peter asked.

"It'll be Shakespeare," MJ replied. Peter and Harry nodded, saying, "Uh-huh." Mary Jane continued, "Specifically, the play will be _Romeo and Juliet_. Guess which role I've been cast in."

"I'll take the guess," Harry announced. "It'll be... the female lead, Juliet, am I not correct, doth my lovely lady?"

Peter rolled his eyes at this, and MJ giggled. "Your Shakespeare is terrible, Harry," she said. "But, yes, I will be playing Juliet. My rehearsal will be at five today, so that gives me a couple hours."

"When'll the play be ready for the public to see, MJ?" Peter asked, taking another sip of his coffee.

"In the coming month," she replied, also taking a sip from her own cup.

After Peter set down his cup, he said, "Really? It's gonna take that long?"

"Well, this is the director's first play, so he's a newbie, and so it's gonna take so much longer than usual to rehearse a play," MJ answered. "And besides, it's Shakespeare, so I'd say it's pretty hard work compared to the previous plays I've been in." Peter and Harry nodded at this, and each took another sip from their coffee. "So, Harry, what's up with you?"

"Well, OsCorp's finances have shot up fourteen percent in the last month alone," Harry said enthusiastically. Peter and Mary Jane both responded with a rather neutral, "Oh," and took minor sips from their cups. "Yeah, yeah, I know, not very interesting, but it's a hell of a good intake compared to the eight percent drop we experienced a couple months ago. Thank God our new weapons managed to outsell Stark Industries to the military for once."

"Good for you, Harry," Mary Jane said with slightly more cheer than the mere, "Oh," she gave with Peter.

Harry looked at the only female member of their trio. "You know, you really are getting good at that acting thing, MJ," he said. "For a moment there, I actually kinda believed you when you said that."

MJ smirked. "Oh, you're just jealous because from my audition for Juliet, I actually understand a little more than half of what Shakespeare wrote in that play."

"Me, jealous?" Harry said in a mock-argument tone. "I mean, you're a bigshot actress on Broadway now, and I'm the CEO of one of the biggest corporations in the world? Yeah, I'll admit to a certain jealousy." He said that last part with more sarcasm than before.

Peter and MJ tittered at that. "Yeah, well, Harry," Peter said, "you do have to admit also that MJ did fairly well in English back in senior high. She got an eighty percent on her report of _Hamlet_ if I remember correctly. Isn't that right, MJ?"

"It's one of the better grades I got out of high school," Mary Jane said before she took her last sip of coffee and threw the cup in the garbage can nearby.

Harry and Peter were the last ones to finish off their coffees respectively, threw their cups in the same garbage that Mary Jane threw it into, and they resumed their conversation.

"Say, Peter, what was your grade on your report for _Hamlet_?" MJ asked.

Peter shook his head. "I don't know, I think I got a seventy, seventy-five on it, it wasn't as good as yours, MJ," Peter replied. "English wasn't as interesting or appealing to me as science. Though I do remember my report being a hell of a lot better than Harry's."

"English wasn't one of my best subjects, but my father was at least somewhat proud of my increase in that class from thirty to somewhere in the late fifties," Harry replied sardonically.

Peter and MJ rolled their eyes at that. It wasn't the first time in the past three months that they responded to a comment about Harry's late father without it having any emotional resonance for Harry himself; considering his vendetta on whom the trio–at least Peter and Mary Jane–now referred to as "You-Know-Who." Of course, none of the trio ever made any mention of "You-Know-Who" in the conversations they've had in the past few months, but Peter and MJ were pretty sure that if "he" was ever brought up, Harry would always and only refer to that specific individual with pure hatred and contempt.

"So now that MJ and I are done talking about how we've been doing, Pete, I guess it's time you tell us what you've been up to," Harry said. "You told me that ever since that little decrease in your pay at the _Daily Bugle_, you couldn't afford to pay for your half of the rent. I told you, I would help you out a bit, but for some reason, you didn't listen."

"Look, Harry, I know you'd be able to pay for both of our rent in the apartment and still have enough left over to buy yourself ten new yachts," Peter said. "But you know it's not in my nature. I can't let my friend pay for both of us while I slack off in the apartment like a bum with an actual place to live. I gotta pay for my own stuff, Harry, fair and square... even if my primary source of income is just from the _Bugle_, now that _Empire 1_ is closed down. Who'd've figured that'd close down rather than the _Bugle_? Well, anyway, you get my point."

"Oh, c'mon, wouldn't you do the same for me if I couldn't afford to pay my part of the rent, but you still had a blow of doh to pay for both of ours, Pete?" Harry asked.

Peter smirked with Mary Jane. "Blow of doh?" he asked. "Where'd you come up with that expression?"

"What, I can't come up with my own expressions?" Harry asked. "I mean, Shakespeare can make up his own words–" he looked over to MJ at this comment "but I can't come up with my own expressions?"

Peter rolled his eyes again. "Well, anyway," he said, "yeah, I probably would pay for both our rents, since we're both best friends." He smiled ironically at himself for this. "But since I'm at the other end of the financial spectrum, that being of the rags rather the riches, I don't feel as compelled to take advantage of my best friend's wealth for myself as others might be willing, such as you, Harry."

"Well, you know, if you ever need any money for if you're in big trouble, like if you find you're destined to be kicked into the streets as a hobo, just come to me," Harry said. "The only way that offer will become iffy is if there's another Great Depression–then I can't make any promises 'til the economy goes back up from there."

"Gee, I wish I could say I was humble enough not to accept that offer," Peter said. "But in case the day I'll ever find myself close to kissing the streets as my new home, I'll look to you, Harry."

"Of course you will," Harry nodded.

"Well, I gotta go now, guys," MJ said, standing up from her chair and picking her purse up off the ground. "It's been fun though. Oh, and Harry, I haven't forgotten about your birthday party tomorrow night, so I'll be there."

"It's your birthday tomorrow, Harry?" Peter asked.

Harry gave Peter a sidelong glance. "Yes, Peter, it will be," he said flippantly. "Same as last year, if you recall."

Peter slapped his hand to his forehead. "Ah, man, I totally forgot," he said in a self-regrettable tone. "Look, I'm totally sorry I didn't think to give you a gift, Harry. It's just been that I've been so busy trying to pay off for my apartment and all..."

"It's okay, Pete," Harry said with a half-smile that said he didn't hold Peter's forgetfulness against him. "I think I'll have enough gifts from my own half-assed, two-faced friends that'll be attending that party tomorrow. You know, the kind of friends you get when you're rich, but you only ever half-remember their faces at most, those kinds of friends."

"I wouldn't know, Harry," Peter said in a manner that said sarcasm, though it was true. "My aunt and uncle were your average retired middle-class joes that did what they could with what little money they had to raise me, so I didn't exactly live such a luxurious life you must have. Plus, you do recall I wasn't exactly the most popular kid at school, Harry."

"True," Harry said. "But all the same, just wanted to let you know those other guys and gals you'll be seeing at that party won't be my best friends, like you guys."

Both Peter and MJ nodded at this with appreciative half-smiles. Then the female member of their trio said, "Well, like I said, later, you two."

"See ya," Peter and Harry both said simultaneously.

After Mary Jane was gone, there was a not-too-awkward silence between Peter and Harry that lasted for less than five seconds before the latter brought up, "So, Peter, where is he?"

Peter noted the jarring tone in Harry's voice that went from semi-comedically social to cold and clipped. "Where's who?" he asked his friend, already guessing who the "who" was.

"You know who I'm talking about," Harry said in a tone that, for him, was menacing. He leaned in a few centimeters and said, "Spider-Man," as if it were a curse.

Peter leaned back in his chair and sighed in a feeling of defeat as Harry sat back in his own chair, though noticeably upright and stiff compared to his casual slouching when Mary Jane was with them. Peter ran his hand down his face before he looked to his friend and said, "Harry, it's been three months already, okay? I don't know where he is. So for once in your life, drop it." Peter emphasized those last two words as if to get it hard through Harry's head.

"Peter, you know I won't drop it until I literally see his head served on a platter next to the best Thanksgiving turkey my chefs could cook," Harry replied, "and until I take off that mask myself from that decapitated head."

Peter raised an eyebrow, his mouth open a bit. "As cheesy as that line was, that's a little dark, Harry," he said.

"You honestly think I give a damn about that, Peter?" Harry asked, his face backing up his words and tone of voice completely. "You took that insect's pictures for well over a year, so you must have some insight as to where he might've crawled back into."

"Listen, Harry, I didn't know where he'd go to after he was done battling all those crooks and supervillains that're a hundred times worse than he ever was," Peter said. "What in God's name makes you think I'd know where he'd go to after what happened to Indy?"

Without acknowledging Peter's statement, Harry snorted and said, "He's a freakin' coward, you know, despite what you and MJ would like to say about him. He pretended he was Superman or something, a good noble superhero, rather than the frickin' murderer he really is. Sure, if no one, not even me, was around to see him kill my father, then most, if not some, of the city will still give him the benefit of the doubt and ignore what the _Daily Bugle_ rightfully writes in its columns against that wall-rat. But when he's out in the open, pushing an innocent woman off the edge of a building, he'll try to desperately save face in front of countless witnesses, including Mary Jane, by _pretending_ to give CPR to her. But in the end, Indy went into a coma that she later died two weeks later from, and Spider-Man just slunk away, never for New York to ever see him again. I'd say good riddance, if it weren't for the fact that it's just not enough." He slammed his fist onto the tabletop with a loud bang at those last few words, and that attracted the attention of a few Drip Den patrons who were sipping their coffees at similar tables outside.

Neither Peter nor Harry encouraged those onlookers' attention, as Peter deliberately avoided eye contact with them, though Harry seemed completely oblivious to the eyes that were lying on him and his best friend.

After Peter was sure that the patrons lost interest in him and Harry by looking out of the corner of one of his eyes, he said, "Harry, I'm going to repeat myself about this just one more time–I don't know where Spider-Man is. So, like I said, drop it." He then stood up from his chair.

"Where're you going?" Harry asked with a hint of restrained aggression in his tone.

"I have to find something in Manhattan, if not the whole city, that's worth my talents and wage as a photographer," Peter replied. He turned around and walked away, neither he nor Harry saying another word to each other as Peter walked around the corner a block away and disappeared to find something worth a decent paycheck.

But throughout the entire time that Peter was walking away, the latter's back facing his best friend, Harry gave Peter a death-stare.

~o~

Later that night, in a random abandoned warehouse in Manhattan, a meeting was being held by thirteen criminals around a makeshift table.

At the head of the table was the leader of this band of criminals, who had snow-white hair that was most likely dyed, orange-tinted goggles, a blue leather jacket, and a pair of gauntlets on his hands. The only name that the cronies around him knew him by was the Shocker. The reason that he named himself that was because of the functionality of the gauntlets in his hands.

"Now that I see that everyone's here," the Shocker began, "it's time to get down to business.

"Tomorrow night, Harry Osborn, the CEO of the successful OsCorp Industries, will be having his birthday party in his big ol' penthouse of an apartment. The half of us who take the second van for when we raid that party will follow my van, so no one will have to worry about knowing the address. Just make sure you stick close by, though not too close–we don't want any cops gettin' too suspicious.

"At the penthouse, we make a good entrance in being fashionably late for the party. There, we'll do the usual stick-up, and demand Osborn for half the money in his bank account, which we'll all split evenly afterwards. However, our real priority in this heist is to act as mercenaries and take out a certain guest that'll arrive at the party just after we do: Spider-Man."

One of the goons nearby the Shocker raised up his hand. "Yes?" the leader of the group asked.

"A couple of questions," the goon said.

"Sure," the Shocker replied.

"First, how are we so sure that Spider-Man will show up there?" the goon asked. "That stinkin' wall-crawler hasn't been seen in over three months. Second, who's paying us to do this job?"

"First, the guy who came to me and agreed to pay us to do this job, which is combined with the money we'll get from Osborn's bank account, said for certain that Spider-Man show up for sure," the Shocker said. "I was a little skeptical about this myself, but I went along with it anyway. Second, the guy himself would prefer to anonymous; in other words, Joe, none of your business.

"Anymore questions?"

Everyone else around the table shook their heads.

"Good," the Shocker responded. "So everyone knows what to do?" After his goons all said, "Yes," simultaneously, the Shocker continued, "Excellent. So we'll meet back here tomorrow at ten at the time of the party, we're ago..." Then he raised up a gauntlet, pointed it to the ceiling, and concluded, "and Spider-Man is toast."

At that, a burst of plasma fire shot out of that gauntlet, causing an explosion at the ceiling it was directed at, and left nothing more there than a giant, jagged hole.

"God, I love doing that," the Shocker muttered to himself.

~o~

The next day, Peter walked back up the stairs leading to his floor of this crappy building, with nothing more than a hundred bucks that J. Jonah Jameson paid him for the pictures he took of a few crimes that he happened to be nearby, and which the police stopped. But here, in New York, a city where some called it the crime capital of America, crimes like thievery and even murder were fairly, and sadly, commonplace in Manhattan.

Well, it could be worse, Peter thought. At least he got _some_ money out of the pictures he took.

But as he walked to his room, he heard the sound of the TV inside. He instantly knew something was wrong, though his spider-sense didn't warn him of any danger that he should prepare for once he was in his apartment. But nevertheless, he prepared for the worst; he never turned the TV on throughout his entire stay in this building, as he didn't want to pay any unnecessary bills alongside his rent–so he certainly wouldn't leave it on. It was a wonder none of the neighbors ever wondered about it or reported to either him or the police.

Quietly, and slowly, Peter put the key in the doorknob of his room, and then, with his spider-like reflexes, he unlocked the door and swung it open, prepared to fight off whatever burglars or whatever were in here.

Instead, what he found on the couch were two teenage boys, one fairly skinny and the other fairly muscular, both wearing regular clothes. The skinny teen reacted in shock and let out a scream at the sight of Peter barging in, while the muscular teen, eating Ruffles chips, simply looked over to Peter with a dumb look, swallowed the chip he chewed up, and said in a low, base voice, "Hi."

"Who are you two kids, and what're you doing in my apartment?" Peter asked, still prepared to deal with any trouble these boys might dole out on him, however little.

"Oh, I'm so sorry that we did this, Mr. Parker," the skinny boy said. He had an English accent. "It's just that, had we met you anywhere else, we'd attract unwanted suspicion from others."

"Oh?" Peter asked. "Regarding what? And you still haven't told me who either of you are." "Oh, yes, of course," the English teen said. "My name is Brian. My friend over here is Bernie. And we're here to give you this." Brian looked over to Bernie. "Bernie, if you will."

"Will what?" Bernie asked.

Brian rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Give me the suitcase?"

"Give me the suitcase..." Bernie trailed off as if expecting something from Brian.

Brian sighed in defeat. "Give me the suitcase please, Bernie."

"Well, I would, if my fingers weren't all salty from the chips, I would do it right now," Bernie replied. Then he licked his fingers, wiped them off his shirt, and prepared to grab the suitcase on his side of the couch.

"No, no, no, Bernie," Brian said, stopping his friend from grabbing the suitcase. "You don't grab the suitcase with the hand that with which you used to lick your fingers of chip salt. Use your other hand."

"But I have the remote in my other hand," Bernie said. As Brian slapped his own forehead in annoyance, Bernie continued, "And you know how awkward it is for me have my left hand reach over my right side, or my right hand reach over my left side."

After Brian ran his thumb and forefinger down the bridge of his nose, he said, "You know what, never mind, I'll get it myself."

As Brian got up off the couch, Bernie asked, "Well, if you could do it yourself, why did you ask me to do it then if you knew I couldn't grab it with either of my hands because of the chips and remote?"

Brian sighed. "I'm just glad you didn't compromise any of our missions yet, Bernie," he said.

"That doesn't answer my question," Bernie said.

"It doesn't have to," Brian replied as he grabbed the suitcase from Bernie's side of the couch.

"What does that mean?" Bernie asked.

"Never you mind, Bernie."

"Don't you just mean nevermind, Bernie. What's with the never-you-mind, Bernie?"

Brian looked at Bernie, took out a pencil and junior puzzle book from with his free hand, handed it to Bernie, and Bernie opened the puzzle book to play with like a child.

"Anyway, Mr. Parker, you don't mind closing the door, would you?" Brian asked. "We don't want anyone in the hallway to pass by and inconveniently look inside this suitcase."

Peter raised an eyebrow. "What's in that briefcase?"

"Take a guess as to why it would be so important for you to close that door," Brian replied.

After a few seconds, Peter's eyes widened at what guess he took, and he closed and locked the door behind him. When that was done, Brian opened up the suitcase, and Peter's guess was confirmed.

His Spider-Man costume was in there.

"Where did you get that?" Peter asked in shock.

"Friends of ours made this," Brian answered. "We weren't told what you did with your original costume, if you indeed got rid of it, so our friends made this."

After a short while of Peter looking at the Spider-Man costume in the suitcase, he looked back up to Brian and asked, "What do you want from me?"

"For you to return as Spider-Man," Brian said.

"What?" Peter asked. "I'm not Spider-Man. I never was."

Bernie looked up the puzzle he was working on and said sarcastically, "Sure, and I'm not Arnold Schwarzenegger."

"You're not Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bernie–you know what, just get back to your puzzle," Brian said, still annoyed of Bernie's apparent stupidity. "Listen, Peter, Bernie and I, along with our friends, all know who you are. And you have to come back, or else–"

"Or else what?" Peter interrupted. "You and your friends are gonna sell me out to the public and reveal my secret identity? You think I'll allow that?"

"That's not it at all, Mr. Parker," Brian said, shaking his head. He sighed and then said, "Listen, Mr. Parker–can I call you Peter?"

"No," Peter answered simply.

"Okay then," Brian said. "Mr. Parker, if you don't do this, something far worse will happen than any of what my friends could do to you; and it won't just happen to you, but it'll happen to everyone on ths planet."

"What're you talking about?" Peter asked.

"If you don't come back as Spider-Man, the world will come to an end," Bernie said, still working on his puzzle.

Peter looked at Bernie curiously, then back at Brian. Peter pointed at Bernie in a silent question of wonderment, and Brian nodded.

Peter adopted a look of perplexity about this before Brian said, "Peter, Bernie and I, along with our friends, are angels."

Perplexity changed to dull disbelief on Peter's face before he asked, "Angels?"

Brian nodded, in a look that said that Peter should bare with him. "Well, to be honest, I'm not actually an angel."

"Oh, so, you're just a regular kid who came with an idiotic angel to give me a Spider-Man suit and to tell me that if I don't come back, the world will end," Peter said, unbelieving.

"Actually, I'm not that either," Brian said. "I'm actually a demon from Hell who's working with angels to stop the threat that needs your help in stopping."

A few seconds later, Peter said with a blank expression and voice, "I'm sorry, are you joking about this?"

"No, I'm not," Brian said. "You see, it's a long story, so have a seat, and allow me to explain."

Brian then closed the suitcase and set it on the floor while Peter walked around the "demon from Hell" and took a seat next to the puzzle-working Bernie. Bernie took some time out of the puzzle he was working on and offered him chips, which Peter declined. While that happened, Brian turned off the TV and stood in front of it.

"In order for all this to make sense," Brian began, "I'll start from the very beginning. And by that, I mean the beginning of time itself.

"When God created this universe and many other universes billions of years ago into what could be termed the Multiverse, He created His angels to act as the overseers of the various universes that were in production. One of these angels was greater than even God's right hand himself, and that angel's name was Lucifer. As the Christian legends state, Lucifer became overly ambitious and tried to claim Heaven, the ultimate universe that oversaw the Multiverse, in order to rule over all of reality. But even with the help of his allies, of whom I was proudly a part of, Lucifer and the rest of us were defeated by God and those who were still loyal to Him. Hence, we were cast into a dimension of our own to rule over, as God wanted Lucifer and his disciples–again, such as myself–to know what power tasted like, and to know just what we had nearly achieved in our treachery so that for the rest of eternity, our punishment was to hunger for that power."

"You know, we still never forgave you for what you and the others nearly did, Brian," Bernie said in the middle of his puzzle-working.

"Would you just shut up and work on your puzzles?" Brian asked.

Bernie reluctantly did what Brian told him to do as Peter said, "So, as you were saying."

"Oh, yes, of course," Brian said. "Right. So, anyway; in the dimension that Lucifer and the rest of us would call home, we accumulated our own power, without the help of God or His supporters. Eventually, after quite a few eons, we finally became a force to be reckoned with to rival that of God and the angels; we sprung on the Multiverse, and introduced evil, countering that of God's good. It was a change that had been in the making for a long time, as much as Lucifer renaming himself Satan, nicknaming himself the Devil, and calling our realm Hell.

"When the power of Hell came to the Multiverse, God and the Devil's powers turned out to be too evenly matched for either to be defeated. So there was no choice between them but a compromise; good and evil would be balanced out throughout the Multiverse according to the missions of the agents of both Heaven and Hell alike. One of the agreements to this compromise was the creation of the sons of God and Satan; the Christ and the Antichrist respectively. The inhabitants of the realties that ultimately supported good would fall for the rule of the Christ, and those realties that supported evil would lean for the rule of the Antichrist. When those final fates of those respective realities were decided by the ultimate agent of Balance, Uatu the Watcher, a being co-created by both God and Satan to overlook the balance between good and evil in the Multiverse, then agents from either Heaven or Hell–angels or demons–would masquerade as the Christ or Antichrist for the rest of that universe's existence.

"However, the Devil's son, the Antichrist Memmon, had gotten tired of always having to simply play by the rules of his father and his enemy. So he secretly gathered up many supporters to stage a coup to overthrow his father, and then he would take over Hell. It took several centuries, from which Memmon continued the charade of pretending to be obedient to his father, until he and his followers made their move and overthrew Satan and his supporters. I was the only one of Satan's demons who managed to avoid being one of the coup's victims, and I observed what happened to the Devil and his loyalists–they had all been transported to a prison realm which Memmon himself fashioned during his time of gathering his own supporters, and which robbed Satan and his minions of their powers; so, you know, they wouldn't try to accumulate their own powers, brake free, and be a problem for Memmon later. After this, I escaped Hell and reported to Uatu the Watcher and told him of the power shift in Hell.

"And quite literally, just as that happened, the Multiverse was thrown out of whack. Universes and realities started to prematurely die off, explode, implode, etc., or experience some relatively minor issues that would only affect entire planets, solar systems, galaxies, etc. in a specific universe, but whose results were terribly severe. To list them all off would be unnecessary, as you probably get the idea by now, right?"

Peter nodded. "I get the gist. Go on."

"Anyway, not only did all of this physical and scientific crap happen, but the universes whose inhabitants were once under the sway of God's goodness suddenly turned evil and began worshipping the Antichrist, who took on the Multiversal persona of Ugly Kid."

"Ugly Kid?" Peter asked in perplexity.

"Throughout all of these universes dominated by humans, species who bear heavy physical similarities to them, etc. all portrayed Memmon's new persona of Ugly Kid as that of a..." Brian trailed off and took out something from his pocket. "You know what, I actually have a photo of what Ugly Kid looks like. Take a good look at that handsome mug of his."

Peter took the picture, and nearly jumped out of his seat at the horrifying visage that stared back at him. It was that of a horribly disfigured and somewhat overweight adolescent boy with pale white skin that defined the colors of his veins and arteries that ran across his face. But that wasn't even the defining aspect of his ugliness; his teeth appeared more wooden than George Washington's–or more wooden than Hayden Christensen's acting, depending on your viewpoint–while simultaneously looking sharped, curved, pointed, and appearing at odd angles and rows that seemed to defy all nature. A green tongue had slithered out between these absurdly uneven teeth like a lizard. But the biggest defining aspect of this horrifying photo was that of Ugly Kid's blood-red eyes that seemed to stare into the soul of whoever laid eyes upon him.

Looking at this picture, Peter felt lucky that at least Ugly Kid was wearing clothes, even though they seemed to be of a blood-red type that bordered onto being black.

After Peter gave Brian back the photo of Ugly Kid, the human-disguised demon continued, "So, anyway, as I was saying. Since we managed to have a common ID on Ugly Kid, we were able to track down a deep evil presence that was more concentrated in this particular universe out of all the other realities in the Multiverse. This occurred just as the bubonic plague came about, so we were pretty sure that Ugly Kid had somehow been birthed through the Black Death. We're not sure how he's able to be here on Earth and rule Hell simultaneously, but regardless, we had to job to do in eliminating him as a threat, so we proceeded to do just that.

"And so, after that, God agreed for me to be a temporary angel to side with the hundreds of angels who came into this universe, disguised as humans, in order to end Ugly Kid's life. In the meantime, God would take care of the realities that had been affected and are still being affected by the catastrophes that have been wrought throughout the Multiverse thanks to Ugly Kid's defiance of the Balance between good and evil. Ever since then, we've been hunting the Antichrist and his minions all across the globe."

"So, wait, if you've been hunting 'Ugly Kid' ever since the bubonic plague came about," Peter asked, "how the hell are you, Bernie, and the other 'angels' still alive?"

"The only power that God gave us before we went into this reality was for our biology to defy the aging gene for as long as was necessary to hunt down and kill Ugly Kid," Brian explained. "While all of the other angels were made into adults, God not only forced me to team up with this idiot here–" he indicated Bernie who was still distracted doing another puzzle "–but He turned both Bernie and I into teenagers in order to deny us the full dignity of adults. Because as you know, teenagers aren't as respected as adults, and while this doesn't necessarily affect our effectiveness in our abilities to accomplish whatever missions we're tasked with, Bernie and I won't be taken as seriously as the other angels."

"Why only you and Bernie?" Peter asked.

"Because God still hates me for turning on Him when we–that's Lucifer and the rest of his followers–tried to overthrow Him in the first place," Brian explained with a hint of controlled contempt in his voice. "And having Bernie be an adolescent like me was so I didn't go too crazy of being the only teenager with the angels. Of course, when you have this idiot around for an accomplice, that point becomes pretty moot, I'd say."

All the while, Bernie was still doing the junior puzzles.

"Okay then," Peter said. "So what does all this have to do with me? I mean, if you needed my help, why didn't you come to me in the first place once Spider-Man became part of the public headlines?"

"We didn't think we'd need your help at first," Brian explained. "But just a couple weeks ago, Uatu the Watcher transported himself into this reality and talked with our boss, Beatrice Lange, who informed her that he had a vision in which Spider-Man would somehow be instrumental in defeating Ugly Kid. He didn't give her any specifics as to what would happen, or how to contact you, which was why it took us so long to figure out who you were, make your costume, and track down your apartment.

"So, as I said, will you return as Spider-Man?"

Peter sighed. He looked at the open suitcase that contained his new Spider-Man costume, then looked back at Brian. "You know, no offense, but this all sounds _way_ too outlandish, especially since I'm an atheist, what with me being a science major and all. So please excuse if I offend you with my doubtfulness of what you speak, or my wonderment why you and the angels didn't go to your actual human supporters in order to find Ugly Kid and kill him."

"Regarding that point, any mere human wouldn't have helped us in our duty, which is why we never went to our own Christian, Jewish, or even Muslim supporters in the first place," Brian explained. "They simply would've been hurt if they were to ever confront Ugly Kid or any of his minions, even with all the advancements and technology and weapons made over this planet's most recent centuries. But, like I said, Uatu said we need you, and I'd say you're not exactly a mere human, now are you?"

"No, I'm not," Peter reluctantly agreed. "But still... you must know that there's very little that'll convince me to believe you."

"Well, then, Mr. Parker, I will have to admit that I did lie about the part where Uatu told us your effectiveness in helping us stop Ugly Kid," Brian stated.

"And what exactly did you lie about?" Peter asked.

"When he told us that you'd help us in defeating Ugly Kid, he also told us what to remind you of in case you did disagree with what I already informed you of," Brian said. "And that was this: Simply because you failed several times as a hero, that doesn't mean you should just quit. Though it seems like nothing more than a coincidence, fate has given you these powers to use for all the good you can give out to those you can help. Failing doesn't mean that you yourself are a failure; that just means you are human. And for what you are as a hero, you have done far more good than evil. To simply to shirk all your responsibilities away because you made some errors, or because you feel you aren't being rewarded as a hero, is cowardice; and your Uncle Ben would be ashamed of you for that." Brian then turned to Bernie and said, "All right, puzzle time's over now, Bernie. Let's go."

"Aww," Bernie said like a disappointed kid whose fun was cut too short. But he was obedient enough to say, "Okay," give back the pencil and puzzle book, and followed Brian out the door.

For the rest of the evening, Peter was left on the couch to stare at the suitcase containing the Spider-Man costume that lay open before him.

_To simply shirk all your responsibilities because you made some errors is cowardice_, Peter heard Brian's voice say several times in his mind as he continued to stare at that Spider-Man costume.

~o~

Later that night, the Shocker and his goons met up at their abandoned warehouse hideout. There, they went into the two vans parked outside, and followed their leader's personal vehicle as they casually drove through Manhattan's streets like any other law-abiding New Yorker.

Meanwhile, at Harry's birthday party, Peter stood outside, leaning against the railing of the balcony, absent a drink in his hand unlike any of the other party guests, and simply observed New York's skyline.

After a while of this, his spider-sense tingled, and he looked down over the balcony to find two suspicious vans parking nearby some of the cars that a few of the guests came to the party from. When more than twelve men who were as suspicious as their vans came out and began approaching Harry's penthouse, Peter knew that something big was going to go down here tonight.

So he turned around, headed back inside, and went to find Harry amidst the crowd of dancing guests so that he could tell him that he had to go. When he found that it took a bit too long to find Harry, he ran into Mary Jane, and he told her in a hurry that he remembered he had a session with Professor Williams that he completely forgot about and was late for it as it was. Before giving MJ a chance to speak, Peter turned and headed for the exit.

Out in the halls, just as Peter exited Harry's apartment, he turned to find an elevator across the hall coming up from the ground floor. Fearing the worst, Peter ran to the emergency stairs from the opposite side, and with no witnesses around, not even cameras in the hall surprisingly, Peter jumped over the stairs' railing to disappear out of sight. This happened just as the Shocker and his goons came out of the elevator that Peter saw coming up from the ground floor, but none of them saw him as they proceeded to the entrance to Harry's apartment.

The crooks all approached the entrance, and ran straight in. As his goons aimed their weapons at the now-terrified and helpless guests, the Shocker said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you're all having a good time tonight. Because if everything goes well for me and my boys here, you'll enjoy the rest of the night with no threat of... _lead poisoning_ in your drinks." He indicated his head to the weapons that were all aimed at the guests. "So let's make sure this all goes smoothly and painlessly as possible. Where's the man of the hour, Harry Osborn? Come on out, birthday boy."

Harry stood out from the crowd, several guns trained on him in case he pulled anything stupid. In spite of the threat to his life, he stood stiffly, arms crossed, his poker-face on, as he asked the Shocker, "What do you want?"

"Mr. Osborn," the Shocker began, "what my boys and I all want is half the cash from your very own personal bank account. Will you humor us and, you know, take out your cellphone and call the bank to make a generous withdrawal from your account? Or do we have to completely spoil this party by putting more holes in your guests than Swiss cheese?"

"Mmm, Swiss cheese sounds nice," a familiar voice said from behind the Shocker and his goons. When the crooks all swung around and instead pointed their weapons at the party's latest arrival, the Shocker smiled as the new guest said, "Though unless you're considering cannibalism, I don't think putting holes in humans would make for much of a good, civilized meal."

And standing tall and proud against the Shocker and his goons was the one, the only... the amazing Spider-Man.

To Be Continued...


	2. Chapter 2

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series: Season 2

Episode 2: Welcome Back: Part 2

"Well, well, well, if it isn't everyone's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man," the Shocker said as he and his goons trained their respective weapons on Spider-Man; the goons with their own guns, and the Shocker with his gauntlets. "Where've you been these last few months? The criminals in this city had missed you stopping their fun and throwing them in the slammer."

"I was off on vacation," Spider-Man replied sarcastically. "Niagara Falls is really nice this year. You should check it out–after the ten to twenty years you and your goons spend in prison, Mister...?"

"Call me..." His words trailed off as electricity began to sizzle at the pointed ends of his gauntlets. "The Shocker!" And with that, a combined plasma surge from both the gauntlets shot toward Spider-Man.

But the superhero leapt up into the air and dodged the blast, which flew beneath him and blew out the opposite wall in the hallway outside. Meanwhile, Spider-Man began swinging all around the room as the Shocker's goons' guns began firing up at him. After they recharged from their combined plasma shot, the Shocker's gauntlets joined in on the fun in trying to shoot Spider-Man down, but all the efforts of each weapon the room went for naught, as all they did was just ruin the room all around them.

"Stop it, you idiots, you're ruining my home!" Harry cried out in rage, as if he led this gang.

One of the goons nearby Harry ceased shooting at Spider-Man and smacked the butt of his Tommy gun into Harry's face, knocking him down to the floor. "Ah, shut up, you spoiled little rich piece of crap," the goon said as he aimed the Tommy directly in Harry's face at point-blank range.

"Marty, what in God's name are you doing?" the Shocker called out to the goon who prepared to blow Harry's brains out. "We need him!"

However, Marty the goon didn't listen and took the shot.

But fortunately for Harry, the shot went wild as Spider-Man swung in and kicked Marty in the chest with both feet. The goon went sailing across the room and brought down two of his friends, knocking all three of them unconscious.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man landed nearby another crook–Joe, the goon who asked the Shocker the questions back at the warehouse–and knocked him unconscious with a wild haymaker before quickly turning to the next goon, grabbing him by the forearm, and flinging him across the room to collide with two other crooks. They weren't knocked unconscious from this, but Spider-Man supplemented for that by quickly webbing them up. Then he quickly flipped out of the way of the onslaught of bullets that shot from the weapons of the five remaining goons and the combined plasma surge from the Shocker, which didn't hurt any of the guests who ducked to the floor in time to avoid peril.

Spider-Man then swung to the ceiling again, and dropped down towards the one goon whose clip from his handgun just ran out. That goon hastily tried to put a new clip in, but he couldn't get in time before he was kicked in the side of the head, knocking him out instantly, before Spider-Man rolled across the floor, kicked the Tommy gun out of the next goon he met, and then roundhouse-kicked him in the torso to send him flying to the wall unconscious as well.

The superhero then pivoted around, shoved the gun out of the next goon's hands, knocked him unconscious with a good uppercut that sent him flying several meters. Then Spider-Man jumped up, avoiding a few bullets from the penultimate goon, then tackled him to the floor, knocked him out with one punch to the face, and then flipped backward to kick the last goon's face, knocking him out as well.

But once Spider-Man landed on his feet, he turned to confront the Shocker, but found the gauntleted villain holding Mary Jane hostage, with one of his gauntlets pointed at the side of her head.

"Don't try anything, hero, or else my gauntlet will render this lovely lady's head into superheated molecules," the Shocker threatened.

Though he'd been in these situations before, Spider-Man was still stunned, not knowing what to do for a few seconds before the Shocker threw Mary Jane aside and then shot a plasma charge from both of his gauntlets. Spider-Man once again leapt out of the way and flipped forward for the Shocker, who tried to reach for another hostage just after he realized how stupid it was to throw MJ aside when another plasma shot didn't work in eliminating his target.

But Spider-Man tackled the Shocker to the floor before he could grab another hostage. And thanks to his quick reflexes, he removed both of the Shocker's gauntlets, threw them aside, webbed them to the floor, looked back to the now-helpless Shocker, and said, "Good night, Snow White." The villain didn't even have time to register that Spider-Man referred to the color of his hair before a simple punch to the face knocked him out.

Afterwards, Spider-Man webbed up the unconscious Shocker and the remaining goons who'd been knocked out and were beginning to regain consciousness. Police sirens sounded from the streets, as heard from the open balcony in the apartment, and Spider-Man took it to be his cue to make like a tree and leave. He passed by several stunned guests who didn't know what to make of this vigilante who, three months ago, was officially deemed a public menace, and now just saved them all from a hostage crisis.

Spider-Man crouched on the balcony's railing, prepared to jump off and swing away, before a familiar voice called, "Wait!" The superhero turned his head to find Mary Jane standing out from the crowd and asked, "Spider-Man. Where have you been?"

The superhero completely turned his crouching body to regard MJ, and then said, "I thought I was in a place where I could simply put aside the responsibilities that came with these powers of mine. But I came to realize that by denying those responsibilities, I had also denied the good that I brought onto this city, believing the mistakes I've made were all the excuse I had to try to live a different life." With that, he turned back around and swung away.

After a few seconds, nearly everyone at the party began cheering Spider-Man's name as a police force, led by the anti-Spider-Man cop Officer Barr, came in to arrest the Shocker and his cronies. Mary Jane simply stood there, alone in a crowd of cheers over the man she loved, with a tear of joy streaming from her eyes, glad to know that Spider-Man was still a hero.

But Harry Osborn, as usual, stood there, alone like Mary Jane, looking out to the balcony at the retreating form of Spider-Man with unmitigated, murderous hatred.

~o~

The next day in the afternoon, Peter came home with more than three hundred dollars, and he figured in no time, he'll have more than enough money to pay this month's rent. When he opened up his apartment room, his enlightened mood dulled considerably at what he saw.

"Bernie," Peter said dryly. "What're you doing here, and where's Brian?"

Instead of answering or even acknowledging Peter's presence, Bernie continued working on his puzzle book as Peter heard a flush in the bathroom. Several seconds later, after the sound of water ran from a faucet, Brian came out of the bathroom with a newspaper under an arm, but stopped in his tracks when he saw Peter close the door behind him.

"Oh, Mr. Parker, good to see you again," Brian said.

"How do you two get in?" Peter asked.

"Surprisingly, Bernie's an expert locksmith," Brian answered. "It's an area where he's not an idiot."

"One of the simplest locks I've had to work on," Bernie interjected without looking up from his puzzle book.

Peter looked away from Bernie and back to Brian. "I suppose you came back to ask about whether or not I'll join you and the angels in defeating the Antichrist?"

"Well, in any case, you did decide to come back as Spider-Man," Brian said as he dropped the newspaper on top of the coffee table in front of the puzzle-working Bernie. The front cover of the paper showed an excellent photo shot of Spider-Man punching out one of the Shocker's goons, with the headline being **SPIDER-MAN BACK! For the worst of New York**. The credit for the photo shot simply said, **Anonymous**, under Peter's request to J. Jonah Jameson; that way, no one at the party would question how Peter's camera took the picture when he wasn't even there.

When Jameson asked why Peter wanted to go uncredited, Peter shrugged and said, "I don't want my professor to know I missed a session with her when I was off partying." Although Jameson was gas bag in Peter's opinion, he did honor his request to remain uncredited. "Curiously, how did you get these shots without anyone seeing the camera or you taking it from its position?" Brian asked after dropping the newspaper down on the coffee table.

"Oh, it's simple, really," Peter replied. "The camera's fairly small, not really noticeable, and I put it at various different points around the room I swung about, setting it at auto-shoot the whole time. Sure, it was a risky move, what with the bullets and plasma surges coming my way, but thank God my camera didn't get destroyed."

Brian lifted up an eyebrow. "I thought you were an atheist."

"What?" Peter asked.

"You told me to thank God your camera wasn't destroyed," Brian answered. "Although considering my demonic status, I think you have a better chance at thanking him than I do."

Peter rolled his eyes. "I didn't mean literally."

"Ah, of course," Brian nodded with an expression saying he already had an idea of what Peter meant.

"But anyway, you did come to find out whether or not I would join you, right?" Peter asked.

"Why else would we be here?" Brian asked back.

"Well, you have to remember that I'm still quite skeptical about that story you told me yesterday," Peter stated.

At that, Bernie looked up to express a look of disappointment that nearly mirrored Brian's.

"But that doesn't mean no," Peter interjected.

Both Brian and Bernie's eyebrows lifted up at this.

"So you will join us?" Bernie asked.

"Just long enough to see how Brian's story will hold up," Peter said to Bernie. He turned to Brian. "So you can go and tell the other angels I'm in."

Brian nodded at this with a smile. "That's definitely good to hear," he said. "You'll be contacted when we need you for a mission." He motioned for Bernie to give him the puzzle book and pencil, which he then put in his pocket, and they both made for the door. But Bernie still followed Brian's lead when the latter made an abrupt stop and turned back to Peter, saying, "Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, Mr. Parker–"

"Please," Peter interjected. "You can call me Peter now."

"Peter," Brian said. "The angels' spies in the Manhattan police department had successfully gained info just this morning as to the Shocker's interrogation. He spilled the beans as to who his employer was, which the spies and Bernie and I both agreed would be of a certain interest for you."

"Oh, yeah, who's the Shocker's employer?" Peter asked.

"The Green Goblin," Brian answered.

Peter's eyes shot wide open. "What?"

"Yeah, I think you should check it out," Brian replied. "Later."

And with that, Brian and Bernie left the apartment again.

~o~

Not knowing where else to look for when it came to the Green Goblin, the first supervillain who Spider-Man fought, and who had been dead for about half a year now, Peter called Harry, asking permission to chitchat about what happened at the party the other night. Harry agreed to this, so Peter headed right over to his penthouse.

"Hey, Pete, how's it going?" Harry asked as Peter entered the apartment, which had been pocked with holes throughout thanks to the Shocker and his goons the previous night.

"Well, I'd say my apartment sure is in better shape than yours," Peter replied. He and Harry laughed at that. After they were done, Peter said, "No, but seriously, you weren't hurt or anything, were you?"

"No, thank God I wasn't, or anyone else at the party either," Harry said. "MJ was used as a hostage for the gang's leader though, but again, like everyone, she wasn't hurt."

"Yeah, I read that this morning in the paper," Peter said. "Spider-Man came back and beat 'em all up."

"Yes, he did," Harry said darkly. "I don't know what convinced him to come out of whatever hole he crawled into, but he stopped those goons and foiled the hold-up." A couple seconds of silence later, Harry continued, "Speaking of which, I read that very same paper you mentioned. Seemed that whoever took that front-cover picture was humble enough not to have his name on ink. It's funny, because that photo seemed like something you'd have taken, Peter."

"Yeah, I noticed that, too," Peter said, subtly looking away from Harry. "It's like I never left the party and stayed there long enough to take the picture myself, eh? No, but you know I always agree to have my name on ink."

Harry nodded with a blank expression. "Yes, of course you do." Before allowing Peter to say something, Harry interrupted, "Pete, you don't mind if I show you something?"

"Oh, no, I don't mind at all," Peter replied. "In fact, I actually stopped by over to check this place out anyway."

"Really?" Harry asked.

Peter thought something up at the spot. "Yeah, I wanted to see how banged up this place was thanks to Spider-Man and those thugs," he said. "I got my wish, after all." He tittered nervously, and Harry didn't even humor him.

"Right, right," Harry nodded. Then he nodded his head for Peter to follow him to the next room. Peter abided.

"So, Harry, what is it you wanna show me?" Peter asked.

"It's a surprise," Harry replied. He and Peter approached the door into the next room. Harry opened it and...

"Your father's den?" Peter asked as he looked around the room that he and his friend were now in.

"Yeah, but this isn't what exactly what I wanna show you, Pete," Harry said as he led his best friend over to the mirror. "It's this." They stopped at the den's mirror.

Peter regarded his own reflection in mimicked perplexity before asking, "You wanted me to take a good look at myself, Harry?"

"Well, that's certainly the first thing I want you to see, Peter," Harry said in an expression that showed an unbridled hatred. "The second is this."

Before Peter's spider-sense could warn him, Harry punched him in the small of his back and sent him flying toward the mirror at full speed. Peter smashed through the mirror and it shattered around him as he crashed to the floor of the dark corridor he ended up in.

Peter quickly turned on his back, and watched as an angry-looking Harry walked into the dark corridor and balled a fist against the wall to his right. Immediately, the corridor lit up.

And it revealed a lineup of orange pumpkin-like bombs, and to the other side of the corridor were labelled glass tubes of green liquid that sat alongside an all-too familiar green glider and demonic mask.

Peter looked back up at Harry in horror. And his best friend laughed one of the most horrifying laughs he heard in his life–because it once came from one of the greatest enemies he ever had to face.

"It's nice to see you again, Peter," Harry said in the voice of the Green Goblin.

Then Harry leapt forward with a double-fist raised overhead, but Peter flipped back as the fist slammed into the corridor's floor, making a small but deep crater there. The two of them then quickly stood up, and then Harry punched out, sending Peter flying back several meters into the wall behind him. He landed like a ragdoll on the floor, but had the energy again when he looked up and found Harry charging at him again.

Peter then pushed his feet off against the wall behind him and rocketed towards Harry. He tackled his best friend to the ground, and they rolled around before Harry head-butted Peter in the nose, then grabbed him by the forearms and threw up back out into Norman Osborn's den.

Once Peter landed back in the den, he leapt back up and spun back around, but was kicked in the sternum and flew back again a few meters. Harry landed on top of him and punched him three times before Peter grabbed the pounding fist and used his other free hand to punch Harry off of him.

After Harry was off of him, Peter leapt back up to his feet and looked back down at his best friend.

"What's happened to you, Harry?" Peter asked. "What's going on?"

Harry then pressed off the floor and sent himself rocketing toward Peter, his feet aimed at his best friend's face. Peter saw white for a few seconds, not aware that he flew back to crash against one of the den's support beams, but his vision cleared up for him to see himself hit the floor. He looked back up and saw Harry charge at him once again. But this time, before Peter could launch himself from his position like he did back in the corridor, Harry made it in time to kick Peter up the chin and send him flying up to the den's ceiling.

After Peter hit the ceiling, he began to fall back down to Harry, but they met halfway as the latter jumped up high enough to grab the former by the neck and slam him back down to the ground.

And with that, after another flash of white that obscured his vision, the next thing Peter saw was blackness that enveloped his consciousness.

~o~

When Peter woke up, he found himself in a dark room with a bright, white light hanging above him. He found that he was in his Spider-Man mask and costume, and he was chained by the wrists and ankles against the floor. He tried to rip out of his bonds, but they were strong. But then he ceased his efforts when he looked up to find the Green Goblin walk into the light.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it, Spider-Man?" the Green Goblin asked. "Or, since no one else is around, would you rather I call you Peter?"

"Harry," Spider-Man said. "I know it's you under there. You didn't knock me out hard enough to erase any of my memory."

The Goblin took off his mask, revealing Harry's boyish visage beneath. "Didn't think I did," he said in his regular voice rather than that of the Green Goblin's. He then took a couple steps forward, kicked Spider-Man in the ribs, and then, after the superhero doubled over, Harry took off Peter's own mask.

"So here we are, Peter," Harry said as his friend/enemy looked back up to him. "Mano-a-mano. Our masks for one another to see." He held up both masks, then tossed it down on Peter's face, which slid off his head and down to the floor. "So that we could also see who we really are."

"Harry, why?" Peter asked in between forced breaths, considering the kick to his ribs. "Why're you doing this?"

Harry then used the hand that wasn't holding his Goblin mask and smacked Peter across the face.

"Isn't it obvious by now, Peter?" Harry asked angrily. "I've wanted to get my hands on Spider-Man every day ever since I saw him stand over my father's corpse that day. And my _need_ to get my hands on that wall-crawling murderer increased ever since he simply upped and disappeared. I sent the best private detectives and teams my money could buy. But for the next three months after that, they never found a thing.

"But then, just less than a month ago, when I wanted nothing more than just to see myself standing over Spider-Man's corpse just as he stood over my father's, I thought I saw you standing in my father's mirror when I sat in his den. I threw his prized dagger right towards it, and I saw that dark corridor that had all those chemicals and equipment that belonged to the Green Goblin.

"And that was the day, the moment, when I realized who my father really was. I broke down then, Peter, with no one, not my friends, not my father, not anybody, to help me through that. My father was a homicidal supervillain who was no better than the man who murdered him. But then, I also realized that if my own father would be that psycho who nearly killed me and Mary Jane at the Unity Day festival, then my best friend, Peter Parker, would also have to be the same man who killed that psycho who was once the only family I ever had left.

"At the time, there was something in my head telling me that I had no real proof for that, unlike what I found with my father. But then I remembered. In that unfortunate realization that Norman Osborn was the Green Goblin, I remembered the last time I talked to him–the last time I hugged him as the son who loved him unconditionally, just as he did for me. I told him that Mary Jane loved you, Peter. And the last thing the Green Goblin did before he vanished was kidnap MJ and hold her at the Queensboro Bridge for Spider-Man to save along with all those kids in that railcar.

"And then that something in my head agreed with my grief; the Green Goblin kidnapped Mary Jane Watson so that he could not only kill Spider-Man, but also Peter Parker; therefore, Peter and Spider-Man, just like Norman and the Goblin, were one and the same. So what was I to do after that? And I thought of it instantly–I would redeem my father's legacy as the Green Goblin by becoming one with him; I would use him so that I could kill you and become New York's first true hero."

"You took the serum," Peter said in disbelief.

"Isn't that obvious, too, Peter?" Harry asked sarcastically. "Gee, I must've really knocked some sense right outta ya. Well, then, here, let me knock some sense right back into you." Peter's face was then met with a smack across the head, and he thought he lost a few IQ points from that.

"You made a grave mistake, Harry," Peter said.

"Oh, yeah?" Harry asked. "And what was that?"

"You think you can control the Green Goblin?" Peter asked.

"It's worked out well for me so far," Harry replied sardonically. "He handled the deal with the Shocker well enough to tell him that if he and his thugs robbed me, they would not only get my money, but the Goblin's as well for successfully killing Spider-Man. You see, I knew you would come back as Spider-Man, Peter. I knew that if your friends were threatened, you would fight for them, one way or another. But I'll admit, I did make a mistake–a mistake in underestimating you.

"I thought that the Shocker and his thugs would have been able to handle taking you out, but instead, they turned out to be nothing more than the idiotic dolts they really were. Had they succeeded in taking you out, they would've got their money, scurry back into whatever rathole they came from, but instead of money, they'd have found bombs that've been blown them to kingdom come. Then the Green Goblin would've become New York's vigilante protector, and after a while of public acceptance between not only the citizens of this city, but even the cops as well, the people you never had vouching for you, I truly would have redeemed my father's legacy... and become my own man."

"Well, I saw what the Goblin did for your dad, Harry," Peter said. "He made him do terrible things that were beyond his control, taking away that option of allowing him to be his own man. The Goblin took away your father's freedom, Harry. You know it; you said so yourself at that festival–"

"My father never accepted the gifts that the Goblin offered him, Peter!" Harry screamed. "I have!" He then breathed in and out and calmed himself noticeably. "And it was regrettable that my dad refused to work with the Goblin as a partner rather than a puppet. But that doesn't mean he deserved to die at your hands anymore than the Goblin did."

"Harry, I didn't kill your father!" Peter cried out.

For that, Peter got his groin kicked in, and he doubled over in so much pain and agony, he thought he was deaf and blind from the white that once again encompassed his vision. The next image he saw once his vision cleared up was that of tiny drops of blood dripping from his lower lip, down to the floor. His hearing also seemed to recover as well in time to hear what else Harry had to say.

"Liar!" Peter heard Harry shout.

Peter looked up back at who was once his best friend, and then said, in a hoarse voice, as the kick to his groin had been really obviously painful, "You may think that the Green Goblin is working with you as a partner. But in time, you'll see, as your father did, that no matter what, the Goblin can never be controlled, and he will consume you in the end, one way, or another."

Harry snorted as he took out a syringe from his belt. "Well, Peter, if that day does come," he said with an evil smile just before he plunged the syringe and injected it into Peter's neck.

"You won't live long enough to see it happen," the Green Goblin said as he slipped on his own mask and fitted that of the Spider-Man's over Peter. Then everything went black for Peter again.

Spider-Man woke up a few minutes later, standing on the edge of the roof of OsCorp Industries, his wrists tied behind him and his ankles bounded together, all be steel chains that he felt too weak to break free from. The Goblin must've given him a tranquillizer that was still having an effect on him even as he came to realize all of this.

"Wakey, wakey," the Green Goblin said from behind him.

"Eggs and baky?" Spider-Man retorted, despite that his lips and tongue felt numb. But then he noticed that the numbness was suddenly begin to wear away pretty quickly.

"Nice follow-up," the Goblin commented on Spider-Man's ability to banter even while sedated. "Too bad for you it'll be the last quip you'll ever spout. But at least take mind that since your defeat of the Shocker, and the fact that he must've squealed on me in prison, you've taken away any chance Harry had of redeeming who his father was." For some reason, it seemed to Spider-Man that the Goblin was faking the sincerity of the regret he voiced, as if he was using that line to further manipulate Harry's mind to his own ends.

And with that, the Green Goblin pushed Spider-Man in his back and sent him tumbling off the roof, where he would meet his death more than a hundred storeys below.

Or so that would have been the case had his superhuman immune system not been able to purge the tranquillizer in his system. Halfway down to the ground, the tranquillizer completely wore off, and he was strong enough to break the steel chains on both his wrists and ankles. Another underestimation on Harry/Goblin's part, it seemed.

Spider-Man spout out a web-line from one of his wrists and he began to swing back to OsCorp's roof to confront the Green Goblin. But once he arrived on the roof, he found no one there.

Suddenly, his spider-sense tingled, and he looked up just in time to find the Goblin on his glider descending rapidly from the sky. The bow of the glider began shooting bullets at Spider-Man, and the latter leapt out of the way. The glider swooped just a meter over the ground from which Spider-Man once stood, and then he came around for another pass. More bullets shot out from the glider's fore, but Spider-Man leapt over them again and practically flew towards his mortal enemy.

The two combatants met as Spider-Man nearly tackled the Green Goblin off his glider, but the vehicle stuck to the villain's feet, and then it went into a ballistic end-over-end barrel roll from which Spider-Man and the Goblin were a part of. As this roll happened, the two of them began punching and kicking each other in order to try to knock the other off the glider, despite the force of the momentum and spin of the vehicle they were both on.

But in the end, when the glider finally managed to correct itself and hovered in a lateral position again, it was the Goblin who got the better of his opponent when he ducked beneath a haymaker, and came up with a good uppercut that sent Spider-Man falling right back to the roof of OsCorp.

The superhero landed on the roof on his back in a giant _thud!_ But even so, he wasn't out of the game yet. He saw the orange-tinted bomb that shot out of the glider's bow above him, and he flipped back three times before the bomb hit the spot on the roof where Spider-Man once lay and exploded. However, the force of the explosion sent Spider-Man flying back again, and he began falling over the edge of the roof behind him.

He arrested his fall by shooting out a web-line to the ledge of the roof, but the glider swooped in and knives that appeared out of its bow cut the line in a snap.. Spider-Man began falling again, and then the glider made another rapid descent, the Goblin hoping for his blades to impale Spider-Man and be done with him once and for all.

However, Spider-Man flipped over the incoming knives and kicked both feet into the Goblin's masked face. The supervillain flew off the glider, and the vehicle went flying in a ballistic arc as both Spider-Man and the Goblin continued their descent to the ground. But then, as the Goblin began punching in some keys on his wrist control for the glider, commanding it to come back to him, Spider-Man kicked him in the sternum and sent him crashing through the window behind him.

Spider-Man then twisted around in mid-air as he continued falling and shot out a web-line for the erratic glider, which hit its target. He then pulled himself in and flipped right on top of it. But once he got into a crouching position, it made a steep dive toward a nearby roof–responding to a command made by the Goblin, no doubt, Spider-Man thought.

Once he saw that the glider would make a crash-landing for the roof it was heading towards, he flipped back, but two seconds later, the glider abruptly pulled out of its descent with centimeters to spare between its underside and the roof. It then lopped over and laterally righted itself as Spider-Man shot out another web and swung back for the Green Goblin. But his spider-sense tingled and he briefly turned around to find that the glider had shot out a rocket for him, which was now rapidly gaining on him.

Spider-Man then let go of the web-line he just shot out and allowed his momentum to carry him through the air as he twisted around and had a good dose of impact webbing shoot out towards the rocket. The webbing hit the rocket's nose, and it exploded instantly. But the shockwave threw Spider-Man back, and he crashed through a window of OsCorp Industries behind him, though it was several storeys below the one that the Goblin crashed through.

The Goblin himself saw that as he looked out through the broken window of the empty room he ended up in. So he jumped out and a few seconds later, his glider, which managed to escape the shockwave of the rocket's explosion, hooked itself beneath his feet and guided him down to the floor of the building where his archnemesis landed.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man jumped out of the broken window he crashed through and spout out a web-line that began to swing him over to the descending glider above him. The Goblin was faster in reaching his target, however, and he gave his opponent one good punch in the face that sent him falling right back down to the ground. Spider-Man then shot another web-line to the glider and pulled himself back up, where he tried to plant a good kick the Goblin's head and knock him off his glider again. However, the supervillain caught the kick in both hands, then the glider spun around real fast before it made an abrupt stop from which the Goblin released Spider-Man, sending him flying away for two blocks before his backside hit the ledge of a roof. That sent him into an uncontrollable back-roll for several meters until he landed on his back at the center of that roof.

As that happened, the glider followed the flying Spider-Man, and then, once the superhero made his final landing on the roof, more bullets shot out. But the superhero rolled out of the way, shot out a web-line that attached to the Goblin's chest, and pulled on it to yank him off the flying vehicle. But instead, the vehicle was still planted firmly beneath the supervillain's feet, and it rocketed towards Spider-Man with knives that appeared out of its bow again.

After the one second it took for the superhero to register this, he flipped out of the way, and the knife-fronted glider skidded against the roof with sparks shooting out. Eventually, the knives broke off, and the Goblin went flying to the opposite ledge of the roof as the glider tumbled end-over-end until it finally landed on its upside several meters from the Goblin.

The Goblin himself, meanwhile, caught the ledge of the roof with both hands after he tumbled over it. He then flipped himself back up, and charged over to Spider-Man. The two foes met with more attacking and defending blows that came with their superhuman strength and agility. Several blocks away, meanwhile, a police helicopter approached, having respond to the trouble that Spider-Man and the Green Goblin were causing.

After a while, however, Spider-Man won the duel when he made a solid punch into the Goblin's face that sent him flying back to land next to his crashed glider.

"It's over, Harry," Spider-Man said.

"I agree to that," Harry's voice said.

Then the Goblin took out a bomb from somewhere in the glider next to him, and then it was the supervillain's voice who concluded, "But it's not for me!"

He then threw the bomb forward, and Spider-Man quickly leaned out of the way. But his spider-sense tingled, and he turned around to find that it was on a trajectory for the incoming police helicopter.

Not wanting the cops there to die, Spider-Man had no choice but to shoot out a web-line that grabbed the bomb, and he threw it right back to the Green Goblin.

The Goblin pushed himself back in order to avert death from the explosion, but the bomb landed less than a meter from his feet when it blew up.

The shockwave launched Spider-Man backwards and off the roof, where he was nearly decapitated by the rapidly spinning blades of the police chopper behind him. But he instead landed against the windshield of the chopper, and he began to fall several storeys down to the ground like a ragdoll, his wounds from the fight against the Goblin numerous, before a quarter of the way down, his energy came back to him like it did when the tranquillizer wore off. Then he swung off, the police chopper on his tail.

But the chase between Spider-Man and the police helicopter didn't last too long before the former jumped into an alley. The copter made a pass over the alley, but both cops inside found that Spider-Man just disappeared there. With that, they passed over the alley and flew off back to N.Y.P.D.

When Spider-Man was sure they were gone, he ducked out of the abandoned building he hid himself in, which he entered through one of the building's busted windows. It was a very convenient alley for him, too; with no one living in either of the buildings at either end of this alley, as they were both abandoned, this was where he kept spare civilian clothes of his. He slipped those clothes over his Spider-Man costume, put the mask in his pocket, and walked out from one of the alley's ends, easily merging into pedestrian traffic as if he had been part of it all along. No one else walking on the sidewalk with him or across the street noticed his sudden presence, as they all seemed preoccupid with other things in their lives; the story of he lives who inhabit New York, Peter thought.

And it was a thought that helped keep his emotions in check and off his face as it sunk into his mind that Harry Osborn, his best friend, who was also the Green Goblin, his worst enemy, was now dead.

~o~

Later, Mary Jane knocked on Peter's door, and less than half a minute later, he opened it up. They greeted each other, and Peter invited her in, asking if she wanted anything, keeping his emotions under control due to the fact that his best friend was now dead, and he couldn't tell anyone without revealing his secret identity or Harry's.

MJ declined Peter's offer for food or drink, and he said, "Okay then. So what's up?"

"I wanted to talk to you about Harry, Peter," she answered. "And about Spider-Man."

Peter grimaced, but asked politely, "What is it about them you wanted to talk to me for?"

"Well, lately, I've noticed that Harry hadn't been acting as his usual self," she said. "I mean, sure, he still seemed like the happy-go-lucky guy he always was. But for some reason, I don't think it was real this time. It seemed like his cheery attitude was a charade, like he was hiding something that he didn't even want his friends to know about. I think, that if anything, his obsession with who he thinks is his father's murderer increased ever since Spider-Man disappeared all those months ago."

"You really think so?" Peter asked, not letting on that he already knew this from Harry's point of view.

"Of course I do," MJ replied. "And now that Spider-Man's back, I don't know how Harry's going to take, or how he's taking it right now." Peter grimaced at that as well, though MJ didn't see it as she looked to her feet before looking back up at Peter and continued with, "I haven't seen Harry since the party. I figured that with what happened last night, I'd give Harry some space, what with his birthday party ruined for him in more ways than one. I didn't even call him yet. Have you seen or talked to him sometime today, Peter?"

"Ah, yes, yes, I have," Peter answered truthfully.

"And how was he?" Mary Jane asked.

It took Peter a few seconds to answer before he said, "Well, he wasn't very happy, or sociable, what with what happened at the party last night."

"Hmm," MJ said with a nod. "That's what I was afraid of. How much time do you think we should give him to cool off?"

Peter suppressed a shudder, considering that his best friend died via an intense explosion. "I say we give him another day or two," he forced himself to say.

"That long?" MJ said with some amount of disbelief.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, he was really angry," he said truthfully, again.

Mary Jane shrugged. "Well, you've been his friend longer than I have, so yeah, I'll give him a day," she said.

Peter nodded. "Yeah, you do that."

MJ nodded back. "Okay." After an awkward moment of silence between them, she said, "Well, goodbye then."

"Bye," Peter said.

Without another word, Mary Jane turned around and left his apartment.

Afterwards, Peter walked over to a particular photo in his apartment. This photo was taken less than fifteen years earlier, back when he and Harry were kids. They were clasping each other's shoulders as they smiled for the camera, and Peter remembered that it was Uncle Ben who took the picture. It was at a family picnic with him, Ben, Aunt May, and Harry tagged along after both his father, and Ben and May of course, gave him and Peter permission to come along.

It was one of the earliest memories that Peter had of Harry. And even after what happened to him, becoming a psychotic supervillain hellbent on vengeance, Peter would cherish all of the memories he had of Harry, and he would always remember him as the best friend he ever had for the rest of his life.


	3. Chapter 3

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds

Episode 3: Minds to Control

In the middle of the night, at the Ravencroft Institute in the Bronx, Christina Carrigan was supposed to be sleeping in her cell. Instead, she stood on the edge of her bunk, simply staring off at the wall in front of her.

Suddenly, the door to her cell opened up, and two men in white walked in.

"Christina Carrigan?" one of the men asked her.

Christina nodded wordlessly.

The second man in white then took out what Christina first thought was a syringe that was supposed to put her to sleep for the night. But instead, Christina made it out to be a remote that the man pressed a button on.

In the next second, the hallway outside went dark.

Christina felt her arm being grabbed, and then she was led outside of her cell in pitch blackness. As the man who wasn't grabbing her by the arm closed and locked up her cell door, Christina's vision adjusted to the dark and she was able to make out the forms of the two men who were helping her escape this hellhole. They led her over to a door, and there, they went down a flight of stairs. The door behind the trio closed just as the emergency power came back up, and there had been no trace of Christina ever escaping.

Soon, Christina and the men in white who were helping her escape reached the ground floor, and the man who wasn't holding her by the arm opened up the emergency exit. The trio then made a mad dash towards the unmarked grey van that was ahead of them. When they were halfway there, the back doors of the van were opened up by a woman already inside the vehicle. Christina and them climbed on in, the man holding her by her arm released her, and the other man closed the doors as the woman rushed to the front of the van. She quickly started up the vehicle, and sped the van toward the exit gate of Ravencroft.

The van rammed through the gate and made a tight turn to begin racing off into the night.

~o~

By the time the authorities discovered that Christina had escaped from Ravencroft, the van that carried her away was already parked in the back alley of an abandoned warehouse, which was still in the Bronx but fairly far away from the institution.

Inside the abandoned warehouse, Christina was led by the two men and one woman into a sparsely furnished room in one of the warehouse's upper floors. There, the woman of the trio who freed Christina motioned the Ravencroft escapee to a couch in one of the room's corners.

"Christina Carrigan," the woman of the mysterious trio said, "my name is Niske. This is Botya." She motioned to the man who had led her out of Ravencroft by her arm. "And this is Majes," Niske continued by motioning to the man who had caused the Ravencroft blackout with the remote he had. "We have broken you out of the Ravencroft Institute for one purpose: So you can build us a mind-control device for our..." Niske trailed off as if she forgot what word came next. "Employer."

"Mind-control device?" Christina asked. "What in God's name are you talking about?"

Niske, Botya, and Majes all noticeably grimaced. "We would never say anything in the name of God!" Botya stated loudly.

"What?" Christina asked. "What're you guys, Christians or something? Did I offend you by taking the Lord's name in vain or anything like that? Because considering that you guys got me outta that hellhole, I'm grateful, so I'm sorry."

Botya and Majes both appeared about to say something, but Niske waved them silent. "No, we are not Christians, Miss Carrigan," Niske said. "Far from it, actually. But for what services you will provide for us, we will gladly accept your apology. But anyway, as to answer your question, we're quite familiar with your history as a science major in Columbia State University. We understand that a science project you concocted was a mind-reading device, which, unfortunately for you, resulted in an apparent loss of sanity, as the doctors at Ravencroft would put, is that correct?"

"That's what those assholes said, so, yeah, that's what happened," Christina said with contempt.

"However, it's not your sanity we're interested in, Miss Carrigan," Niske said. "It's your intelligence. Are you able to adapt your previous mind-reading device from an individual scale to that of mind-control on a worldwide scale?"

"Worldwide?" Christina asked. "What're you guys planning to do, take over the world or something?"

"Not that it's any of your business, but yes, that is what we plan to do," Botya said before Niske could say anything.

"Oh," Christina said with an eyebrow raised. "And what'll I get out of it?"

"You will get the one thing you've always wanted," Niske said. "Spider-Man."

Christina's eyes widened at this. "How do you know about that? I understand that you probably could've done a little espionage to get in my public records while I was in school, but how do you my deep love for Spider-Man?"

"For you, that's irrelevant to know," Majes said more aggressively than was needed.

Niske looked at Majes, giving him the stare that told him to shut up, which he did. The female of the trio then looked back down at Christina, and said, "What will matter to you, Miss Carrigan, in the course of this enterprise you will agree to be a part will be the reward you will gain, as stated."

Christina smiled, content with the deal she'll agree to. "Spider-Man. Then it's settled. I'll make the mind-control device for you guys. But just out of curiosity, what is with the God thing with you guys?"

"That is also irrelevant to you," Botya said rudely.

Christina looked at Botya, and then to Majes before settling on Niske. "It seems that a lot of things are irrelevant to me. But what the hell, I'll still make the damn machine for you guys."

"That is excellent to hear," Niske said with a nod. "Our master will be pleased."

"Master?" Christina asked.

All the members of the trio in front of Christina gave her a certain stare.

"Oh, right," she said. "Irrelevant. Of course."

~o~

It had been two weeks since Spider-Man's final fight with the Green Goblin–the one who had been Harry Osborn, rather than his father, Norman. And now a funeral was being carried out in Harry's name as his coffin was being lowered into the hole that was next to the grave of Norman.

Of course, there was no actual body in Harry's casket; after Harry went missing, a search party was hired by his friends, including Peter, who knew that there would be nothing to bury even if the world did find out what happened to him. But he threw in at least a few dollars–it was what money he could waste for something he knew would be a futile endeavor–to keep up appearances that he was as ignorant of Harry's whereabouts as much as Mary Jane and Harry's other friends were.

So after two weeks, the search party came up with nothing, and Harry was declared legally dead. Preparations were then put into motion for a funeral, and what would really be put into Harry's casket would his most prized possessions that could fit into the coffin. Now, on what Peter would point out as a cliché for a funeral, rain was pouring pretty heavily, as if to signify everyone else's emotions about this occasion, particularly Peter and Mary Jane's.

When the funeral was finally done, and everyone left, Peter met up with MJ outside the cemetery.

"Hey, MJ," he said.

"Hey," she said back unenthusiastically.

"May I walk with you back home?" Peter asked solemnly.

"Yeah, why not," MJ agreed. "You can come with me."

"Good," he replied. "Because I suppose you need someone to be with right now, don't ya?"

"And I suppose it's the same with you, isn't it?" MJ asked.

"Yes, it is," Peter answered with a mournful nod.

Then they walked all the way back to Mary Jane's apartment, not saying a word to each other–because they didn't have to. They both felt the same amount of grief over Harry's loss, even though, in MJ's mind, there was a still a possibility, however unlikely, that he could still be alive and out there somewhere. Peter's grief, however, was backed up considerably because he actually _knew_ that Harry was gone for good.

When Peter and MJ finally arrived at the latter's apartment, they both said goodbye, and they parted ways, leaving Peter alone in the rain as he continued to walk back home to his own apartment.

Less than half an hour later, just when Peter started to open the door to his apartment, he half-expected Brian and Bernie to be there. Instead, the door behind him on the other side of the hallway, opposite Peter's own apartment, had opened up, and a familiar British voice said, "Ah, Peter, good, you're home. My word, you're soaked. Why didn't you bring an umbrella?"

As Brian spoke those last two sentences, Peter gradually turned around to face the human-disguised demon. "Hello, Brian," he said. "What is it that you wanted?"

"Well, do you remember two weeks ago when I told you that if there were any missions that popped up that had to do with stopping Ugly Kid?" Brian asked.

"The Antichrist, yes, I remember," Peter answered. "What about it?"

"Oh, nothing, I was just wondering if you remembered– What do you think? There's a mission that just came up for you right this minute." He said that as he pointed his thumb inside his new apartment. As an aside, he added, "By the way, just for your information, Bernie and I moved in here so we don't have to break into your own apartment." Getting back on track, Brian continued, "C'mon in and meet the boss for your mission debriefing."

"All right then," Peter said reluctantly as he followed Brian into his apartment.

After the human-disguised demon closed and locked his apartment door, Peter followed him to the apartment's computer, which had three chairs, two unoccupied and one sat on by Bernie, and then Peter and Brian took those two unoccupied chairs. Once they were set in their seats, they all faced the computer screen, which showed the face of a stern-faced African-American woman.

"Peter," Brian said, "this is the leader of the angels on the hunt for the Antichrist Ugly Kid, Beatrice Lange."

"Thank you for the introduction, Brian," Lange said. "Although that still won't earn you anymore graces from me or any of the other angels."

Brian shrugged. "Well, it was worth a try anyway."

"No, it wasn't," Lange said before shifting her attention over to Peter. "Mr. Parker, your first mission as Spider-Man with the angels in our goal to defeat the Antichrist is related to one of your past ventures as a vigilante."

"Really? How so?" Peter asked.

"Let me refresh your memory," Lange said. "Are you familiar with a Miss Christina Carrigan?"

"Christina? Yeah, I remember her," Peter replied. "I was once partnered up with her for a science project in university. She was a nutty little fruitcake, I'll say. She was a big fan of my superhero alter ego, and by fan, I mean fanatic, pretty much obsessive, really."

"And I suppose you are able to recall the nature of this science project?" Lange asked.

"I can," Peter answered with a nod. "She made some kind of mind-reading machine, which unfortunately caused an accident that really made her go crazy. Christina thought she saw me, as Spider-Man, telling her to do some pretty dangerous things. In the end, though, I got the best of her and last I heard, she was sent off to Ravencroft for intensive care."

"Well, Miss Carrigan has escaped from Ravencroft, Mr. Parker," Lange informed him.

"What?" Peter asked in disbelief. "I mean, escaped how?"

"Our spies within the New York City Police Department," Lange explained, "have found this footage in one of Ravencroft's security cameras, which have been adjusted for night-vision."

Replacing Lange's face was green-tinted footage of two mysterious men in staff uniform guiding Christina out of her cell and then making their way through the emergency exit.

Lange's face came back on the computer screen, and she continued with, "This footage had been found by our spies, and were duplicated for this purpose. For your information, those two men you just saw were demonic loyalists to the Antichrist." The footage came back up, paused, and zoomed in on the men's faces as Lange's voice continued. "The one holding Miss Carrigan by her arm is Botya. The one locking up the cell door is Majes." Once again, Lange's face came back up. "So you say that Miss Carrigan's science project involved mind-reading, Mr. Parker?"

"Well, yes," Peter answered.

"Hmm," Lange said as she put a hand beneath her chin, wondering. "It's possible that the Antichrist would want Miss Carrigan to create another mind-reading device. But even with that added advantage to whatever powers he may have, I don't know why the Antichrist would want Miss Carrigan for such a relatively minor endeavor compared to his wider plans of controlling all of the Multiverse."

"Well, maybe Ugly Kid wants this chick to modify her original designs for mind-control," Bernie said in an uncharacteristic display of intelligence. "It's gotta be it, for it's a pretty damn good way for Ugly Kid to rule over all of reality."

"Yes, that would make sense," Lange acknowledged. She shifted her attention back to Peter. "Mr. Parker, would you please give any guesses as to where Miss Carrigan would acquire the necessary materials needed for a mind-control device?"

"Well, I don't think it'd be logical even in her unstable mind to know that building another device like that from scratch would be a waste of time," Peter said. "So my guess is, she'll get the original mind-reading device she originally created and modify it for mind-control."

"And where would Miss Carrigan get the original mind-reading machine, Mr. Parker?" Lange asked.

"Well, after she was shipped off to Ravencroft," Peter explained, "I took the device and put it in the closet my room back in my previous apartment. I completely forgot about it after I left. But I do think that finding it under my custody would be one of the first things she'd do if she just wanted to simply modify the design of her original creation."

Suddenly, Peter's spider-sense tingled. He silenced Lange by putting his index finger in front of his mouth, and then indicated with his head the direction of the doorway leading out of Brian and Bernie's apartment. "My spider-sense is tingling," he quietly explained. "I think it's coming from outside this apartment."

Lange nodded for Peter to check it out; he got up out of his seat and quietly but gradually headed over to the door. He looked through the peephole, and found that his door was broken in. He could see the intruders there, and he found Christina among them, along with the two men who helped her escape from Ravencroft–Botya and Majes–along with a woman he didn't recognize.

Peter then turned around and headed back to where Brian and Bernie were sitting. "It's Christina and those demons you mentioned, Miss Lange," Peter quietly informed her, along with Brian and Bernie. "They must've found out where I lived so that they can get the device."

"How convenient," Lange said simply before shifting her attention to Brian and Bernie. "You two, get the Heaven guns. Even the one for Mr. Parker."

The human-disguised demon and angel both nodded, and went to a nearby cabinet, where they pulled out three white handguns from the bottommost drawer. Bernie handed Peter one of the guns whilst he and Brian loaded up their own white weapons.

"I don't use guns," Peter said to Brian and Bernie after looking at the weapon in his hand.

"Listen, we don't have time for this, Mr. Parker," Lange said. As he turned back to face the computer monitor that displayed her face, she said, "Brian, Bernie, go out there and take care of those four."

They once again nodded wordlessly, and moved to the door, taking out ski masks from their pockets that they put over their faces.

"No, wait!" Peter stopped them quietly. "Why do we have to kill them?"

"Because simply putting Christina back in Ravencroft isn't going to cut it this time, Peter," Brian explained. "Even if we do remove Niske, Botya, and Majes out of the equation, whether or not we kill them, Ugly Kid will simply bring in more demons to break her out so that he could use her again, even if Ravencroft does increase its security. We have to kill her and those three demons in your apartment right now with these guns specifically, as they'll be imprisoned in Heaven."

"What?" Peter asked in wonderment about the nature of these "Heaven guns."

"Look, if we kill them any other way, they'll go to Hell and Ugly Kid will be able to resurrect her to do his bidding," Bernie interjected for Brian. "These guns are blessed with modicums of God's power that make sure their spirits will go to Heaven, where they'll be trapped and out of Ugly Kid's power."

Peter looked at Bernie. "Are you really an idiot, Bernie?"

"Only when it's convenient to annoy the crap out of me," Brian answered for his angelic counterpart. "Anyway, we have to kill them using these guns before they find out that you don't have that mind-reading device and leave."

As the computer monitor blackened to nothingness, since Lange decided to sign off to allow Peter, Brian, and Bernie to accomplish the task of killing Christina and the three demons with her, Peter sighed and took out his Spider-Man mask. He quickly slipped it over his head and stripped down to his costume.

As one, just after Spider-Man quickly opened the door that led out of Brian and Bernie's apartment, he and the ski-masked teens jumped into Peter Parker's apartment and aimed their guns for the four intruders inside. But Niske, Botya, and Majes had all pulled out their own black guns and had them aimed at Spider-Man and the teens just as quickly, while Christina was left to look at the scene in perplexity.

It was three-against-three, evened odds, leaving all six gun users in a Mexican standoff. And Bernie was even courteous enough to close the door behind him by using his foot, so no one who happened by in the hallway would be able to view this scene.

"Well, well, well. It's nice to see you again, Brian," Botya said sarcastically.

"The three of you betrayed your true master and the rest of us who followed the true way of leadership," Brian said without humor.

"Gee, doesn't that sound familiar," Bernie said sarcastically.

"Shut up, Bernie," Brian said without turning his head or pointing his gun elsewhere.

"You're still an idealistic fool, Brian," Majes said. "The only difference between you and the angels is that you have a little bit more sense in you to follow the way of evil."

"You don't know what you idiots have done," Bernie said. "You and your 'master' Ugly Kid have thrown off the Balance of good and evil, and the Multiverse is suffering because of you."

"Good," Botya said. "It should go well enough when Ugly Kid finally does take over the Multiverse then."

"I'm sorry, what the hell is going on here?" Christina asked. "What're you guys even talking about?"

"Christina!" Spider-Man called.

"Spider-Man!" Christina replied in uncontrolled giddiness, completely forgetting about what was happening around her. "It's so good to see you again!" She tried to run over to him, but Niske stopped her with her free hand. Nevertheless, Christina didn't seem unfazed as she continued with, "I've been seeing you every day at Ravencroft; telling me how much you loved me; how you thought I was so smart and beautiful; it's always good to see you again, you delicious hunk of combined meat of spider and man!"

Even with the guns trained on them, Brian still managed to learn near Spider-Man and murmur, "That is one screwed up chick."

"These guys told me that you and I will be together forever!" Christina exclaimed.

"Shut up," Majes said to the deranged woman with them.

"But only after I find out where my former science partner, Peter Parker, put my mind-reading device," Christina explained.

"Shut up," Botya repeated for Majes.

"And then I'll modify it so that whoever these guys work for will be able to rule the world and then you and I will be together for–"

Christina didn't get the chance to finish her sentence as Niske knocked her unconscious with his free hand.

"Thank you," Botya and Majes said simultaneously to Niske without turning their heads or weapons away from Spider-Man, Brian, or Bernie.

Each trio continued pointing their guns at each other, their arms getting tired, for a while before Niske said, "So. How about the three of you let the three of us safely take this girl, tell us where you put that mind-reading device, Mr. Parker, and allow us to walk out of here with it?"

Beneath his mask, Peter raised an eyebrow. "How did you know who I am? And, not to give you any ideas, but why didn't you tell Christina my identity if you knew it?"

"We have our ways of finding out, Mr. Parker," Niske answered. "And we didn't tell Christina because that information is irrelevant to her."

"Bitch seems to want to know more than she needs to," Majes murmured to himself.

"So that's how you found out where I live?" Spider-Man asked.

"Pretty much," Botya answered.

"And you still didn't tell Christina this?" Spider-Man asked.

"Again, she doesn't need to know that," Niske repeated herself.

"Oh," Spider-Man nodded, still not letting his aim or sight off from the opposing demons. "Well, guess what. That device you speak of; it's not here. I left it back at my other apartment."

"You lie!" Majes nearly shouted.

"No, I don't," Spider-Man replied slyly.

"If that's so, then where is your other apartment?" Niske asked angrily.

Spider-Man snorted. "I'm not telling you."

"Then so be it," Botya said.

Simultaneous shots were then fired.

And all of those fired bullets all hit the guns out of their holders' grips. The weapons flew off into various corners of the room, and that left the two trios weaponless, but still able to fight.

The three demons charged first, and Spider-Man, Brian, and Bernie met them head-on. The three separate fights that ensued–Spider-Man fighting Niske; Brian fighting Botya; and Bernie fighting Majes–from that point began to diverge across the apartment of Peter Parker, as each combatant in each fight fought for their very lives.

Sure, the demons knew that if they were killed by their enemies without the Heaven guns, they would simply go back to Hell and be resurrected by Ugly Kid. But it would still be quite a setback, and in the time it would take for them to come back to life, if either one of them died, their victorious opponents would find the time to grab one of the Heaven guns scattered across the room and end Christina's life by assuring her soul would go to Heaven; hence, their mission would fail whether or not they would be resurrected. Even ending her life themselves would be too much of a setback that Ugly Kid wouldn't tolerate, for it would take a lot longer to resurrect humans than it was for demons or angels; the longer Ugly Kid had to wait for his plans to take over the Multiverse came to fruition, the heftier the punishment was brought upon the demons who failed to serve him to the best of their abilities. So while ending Christina's life and making sure she would go to Hell would give Ugly Kid a more likely victory, it wasn't an excuse that the Antichrist himself would kindly deign to accept.

So, of course, neither Niske, Botya, or Majes were going to allow Christina to die via a Heaven gun from any of their opponents as they fought their hardest with all their combat experience summoned to end the lives of their foes. But Spider-Man, Brian, and Bernie fought just as hard with their own combat skills, even if their attempts to grab one of the Heaven guns in the midst of their diverse fights went all for naught due to their demonic opponents' effort to stop them for good.

As each fight progressed, with all six opponents sustaining ample injuries thanks to the blows that they've had to endure, Christina began to stir from the spot she landed unconscious on. Spider-Man was the only one out of all the combatants in the apartment right now to see this, even if it was just for an all-too brief two seconds that was one of the few lulls in his fight with Niske.

Eventually, Christina woke up completely and was dumbfounded when she observed the chaos raging throughout the apartment. Niske then became the second combatant in the room to notice her wake up, and then she shouted, in between blows between her and Spider-Man, "Christina! The device! It's not here! It's at Peter Parker's previous apartment!"

Suddenly, police sirens sounded and red and blue lights flashed, as could be seen from one of the apartment's windows. And all at once, each of the fights stopped, as all six combatants looked from their current positions to realize that the police have arrived.

"Huh," Spider-Man commented. "It seems that the neighbors have called the cops to investigate the disturbance going on in here."

"Well, doesn't that just add to the fun?" Botya retorted.

Then a squad of eight police officers stormed in to the apartment, and bared their weapons at everyone else in the room. Despite the weapons levied at them, it was the demons who attacked the gun-toting cops first. They each managed to duck out of the way of the incoming bullets where they rightfully suspected the cops would shoot, and they were all able to kill two cops each by either braking their necks or using their own guns to shoot their heads at point-blank range before Spider-Man knocked down the two remaining cops with simple punches to the face.

Meanwhile, as all this happened, Brian and Bernie scrambled to gather up their own Heaven guns, and aimed them at Christina. But the three demons had already taken care of the cops they dealt with at that point, so Botya and Majes knocked the weapons out of Brian and Bernie's hands respectively before resuming their fights with them, just as Niske did against Spider-Man.

With all of the chaos around her, Christina decided to escape the room so that she could take the van herself and go to Peter Parker's previous apartment in order to find the mind-reading device.

But she only realized the problems of that plan once she actually got to the van; one, she didn't know how to drive, as her love for science, and, more importantly, distracted her from the regular things in life that other people take for granted every day; two, she didn't have the keys to even unlock the van, never mind drive it even if she could; and three, she didn't even know where Peter lived before this apartment.

Christina wasn't really one who planned for these things.

But at least two of her problems in this situation–those being the driving and unlocking the van parts–were resolved when Niske crashed from out of Peter Parker's apartment window, having been kicked out of there by Spider-Man himself. The fall from the height that Parker's apartment reached didn't kill Niske as she landed painfully on the roof of the van.

"C'mon, Niske, we've gotta get out of here!" Christina exclaimed.

"Understood," Niske replied, though grunting from the pain she sustained. "Botya and Majes can take care of themselves. We have to find out where Peter Parker's previous place of residence was." She rolled off the roof of the van by herself, unlocked it, and she and Christina clambered inside from the driver's side.

Meanwhile, after Spider-Man took care of Niske, he looked around and only just realized that Christina was gone now. Before he could turn around and look out the window to find where he suspected she would be, he had to dodge Brian and Bernie being thrown as projectiles in his direction, after Botya and Majes used their respective opponents' arms as leverage to fling them towards Spider-Man. The latter caught the ski-masked teenagers from landing harshly against the floor, but watched with them as the two male demons rushed out the door. This happened as Spider-Man heard a vehicle start its engine and zoom off.

Spider-Man, Brian, and Bernie all followed suit, forgetting about Niske and Christina's whereabouts as the former of the females started up the van, and drove off. Meanwhile, Botya and Majes managed to make it to the stairs that would take them down to the ground floor. Spider-Man tried to stop them by spouting two web-lines in their direction, but the human-disguised demons had already vaulted over the stairs' railing and descended for two floors before arresting they landed in deep crouches against the stairs a couple levels below.

They continued on downstairs as Spider-Man, Bernie, and Brian made it to the railing that Botya and Majes vaulted over, and paying no mind to what Brian and Bernie would do, Spider-Man vaulted over the railing like the two demons and arrested his fall as he descended to the level that his quarries were now on by spouting a web-line overhead against one of the railings.

Now on level with the two demons, Spider-Man tried to kick them in their sternums, but they ducked out of the way, vaulted over the next railing, descending another two floors before coming to another less-than-soft landing before continuing on downstairs. But Spider-Man let go of the web-strand he was now holding on to and allowed himself to flip end-over-end downstairs to try to get Botya and Majes this time.

However, they then just scurried out the door only to find the van gone.

They spun back around when they heard the door to the apartment open again, and they found Spider-Man there.

"What, did your mommy forget to pick you boys up from soccer practice?" Spider-Man quipped.

Suddenly, the unmarked grey van that Niske drove appeared from around the corner, and it began to zoom right towards Spider-Man. The latter jumped up out of the way, sticking to the wall behind him as the vehicle made a screeching stop as it made a tight turn for its backside to face Botya and Majes.

Christina opened the doors, motioned for the two male demons to climb inside quickly, and they did. Spider-Man jumped down from his previous position and spout out a web-line to at least nab Christina out of the van, which succeeded. Botya and Majes made futile grabs, which they even missed, as the web-string pulled Christina right to Spider-Man's heels.

"Christina, listen to me!" Spider-Man said as she came to her feet and hugged him just as Botya told Niske not to drive away yet. And even as that happened, Majes jumped out and rushed for Spider-Man and Christina. One kick sent that demon plowing right into Botya behind him, having them fly right back into the van. "They're just using you for their own ends! They don't care about you; they won't give you to me even if you succeed in what they want you to do!" As he said this, Botya and Majes got back on their feet and dashed to get out of the van again.

But once the demons got out of the van, Spider-Man watched in shock as Christina's head snapped to the side just less than a second following a loud _bang!_ that sounded from above. As Spider-Man looked at the bloody wound on the side of Christina's head, Botya and Majes stopped in their tracks, and they then looked up with Spider-Man to find Brian's Heaven gun smoking as it was aimed at Christina's direction. The human-disguised demon himself was standing alongside Bernie at the window that Spider-Man kicked Niske through.

Beside Brian, Bernie complained, "You know, if you had given me just one more second, I could've ended her myself!"

Ignoring Bernie's complaint, Brian motioned for him to train his gun on Majes as he aimed his own for Botya. But both demons had already scrambled back into the van, their mission an utter failure with Christina's death and soul in Heaven now, and Brian and Bernie's shots only hit the empty road. They fired some more against the van, hoping that maybe some bullets would might get through and kill the demons, but none did as Niske drove off in a rush, ramming through the police cars that came to halt the fighting in Peter Parker's apartment.

Brian and Bernie then disappeared back into the apartment as people watched Spider-Man hold Christina's corpse in his arms, some of them knowing that it wasn't he who killed her this time. He then laid her body on the ground, closed her eyes, and then swung away, so that he could return to his apartment as Peter Parker.

~o~

Later that day, Peter returned to his apartment building, only to find it cordoned off by the police, as expected, considering the events that transpired there. All six of the cops who died there, and Christina, were loaded into ambulances to be taken to the morgue. The two cops who Spider-Man only knocked out were seen giving a field report of what happened to their fellow officers; Peter even saw Officer Barr as one of the two interviewers.

And then Brian and Bernie, their ski masks off and dressed in different clothes rather than the ones they were seen in when Brian killed Christina, stepped in beside Peter.

"You two got out of there pretty quickly," Peter commented.

"Yes, well, that's how we work when you do missions needed to take down the Antichrist," Brian said.

"Say, how did you know you'd have the opportunity to kill Christina?" Peter asked.

"We all heard the van go just as Botya and Majes were leaving, didn't we?" Brian asked Peter.

"Yeah, we did," Peter acknowledged.

"Well, I knew that even though she's a demon whose sole purpose in life is to obey the wills of whatever master she'll follow, she wouldn't have wanted to endure the punishment Ugly Kid would've inflicted upon her for driving off with two demons," Brian said. "Yes, two demons may not seem like much, but one thing I knew in all my years of interacting with the Antichrist is that he doesn't like to waste resources, no matter how small."

"So why drive off in the first place? Why not just wait for them?" Peter asked.

"With us on our tail?" Brian asked. "Niske wanted to catch us by surprise, kill us, and then pick up Botya and Majes. It's a nice two birds, one stone tactic I admire."

"Or two girls, one cup," Bernie commented.

"Never mention that again, Bernie," Brian said through gritted teeth.

Ignoring the interaction between the demon and angel, Peter asked, "So, you knew that Christina would get the opportunity to come out in the open to embrace me so you could shoot her?"

"It was a gut instinct that might happen, yes," Brian stated. "And, as you saw, it succeeded."

"Even I was skeptical that it might work," Bernie said.

"Yes, and you failed to get the opportunity to shoot her yourself," Brian said sardonically. "That's what you get for doubting me, Bernie." Brian didn't really sound serious when he said that, though.

"Peter!" a familiar female voice called.

Brian and Bernie slipped away inconspicuously as Peter turned and found Mary Jane run lightly toward him. She hugged him, then pulled back and said, "Oh, God, I was so worried. It was on the news, I heard what happened at your apartment today. Spider-Man was there, that crazy Christina chick who was so gaga over him, and a few others that those two remaining cops couldn't identify. I thought that maybe you were there, and that maybe you were hurt, or worse."

"I'm fine, MJ," Peter assured her. "I was out trying to get some photos when all this happened." He looked over to see Officer Barr and another fellow cop look over his way. "Though I think I'll probably have to give a more complex explanation to the cops when they ask why my apartment must've been so special to warrant all that violence."

"Well, I'm just glad you're all right," MJ said. He then gave him a kiss on the cheek, then turned and walked away as Barr and his fellow officer approached Peter to question him.

~o~

Niske, Botya, and Majes all returned to their abandoned warehouse hideout in the Bronx later that night. It took them longer to return because they were forced to ditch their van in an alley and had to scurry into the sewers until they were sure they made it out of Manhattan. They all smelled of sewage and crap, but those they encountered on their way back to the warehouse on foot throughout the rest of the city didn't comment on the stench they emitted.

The three demons disappeared in the back alley of their abandoned warehouse hideout just as the police finally announced to the public to send out any 911 messages regarding the whereabouts of Niske, Botya, and Majes, who were identified in drawings by the authorities. But just because they were back in their hideout didn't mean they were safe.

Reluctantly, they returned to the sparsely furnished room where they debriefed Christina of what she had to do; unbeknownst to any of them in that room the very previous night that they would fail the next day. Once they were all inside, and the door was shut behind them, a black, swirling crowd entered into the room through the cracks of the room's floorboards. It coalesced before the three demons, who all stood united, into that of the spectral form of their master.

Ugly Kid.

"The three of you have all once again failed me," he said in a deep, gravelly, Italian-American voice. "You shall all be punished accordingly."

Niske, Botya, and Majes all nodded acceptance of their punishment, and the spectral form condensed into a cloud that rushed the three demons. It slithered around like a snake throughout their body, entering through their orifices, and they screamed like mere mortals rather than the human-disguised demons that they really were.

But just as their torture began, it ended just as quickly. The three demons, kneeling and panting from the pain they've just endured, managed to compose themselves and stand back up proudly, mustering what dignity they still had before the spectral form of the Antichrist.

"You have all been punished accordingly," Ugly Kid said. "Now, Niske, as you will speak for you and your companions, you will answer to me. So, you have met the Spider-Man, I presume?"

"Yes, we have," Niske answered.

"And he is a worthy opponent, I presume?" Ugly Kid asked.

"Yes, he is," Niske answered.

"That is all I needed to hear."


	4. Chapter 4

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds

Episode 4: Scorpion Sting

During the nighttime of New York City, in the middle of Manhattan, a patch of street suddenly exploded into debris and chunks of rock and concrete, disrupting a steady flow of traffic. Cars crashed into each other, as those in the forefront of this explosion abruptly slammed on their brakes in order to avoid any damage to their vehicles, though that point became moot when those crashes from behind ensued.

From out of the hole that was the aftermath of the explosion in the road, a scorpion-like humanoid jumped out of the ground. He began to attack random vehicles and pedestrians in his way with his brute strength, lengthy tail, and acid that shot out from that tail. Nearby police cars zoomed out of their current positions and raced down whatever streets they were on to stop this new menace. The officers in the police cruisers scurried out of their vehicles, aimed their weapons at the scorpion-like man, and called for him to halt.

When the scorpion-like being refused to listen to the cops, the latter began to shoot him. But their bullets hit nothing but the being's armored hide, which seemed more impenetrable than a rhino's. Still, even through the armor, the scorpion-like figure felt at least the microcosm of the bullets' regular impacting forces, so he turned to the nearest group of parked police cruisers to attack the cops there. The first attack he brought upon them was a small acid wave that shot out of his tail. The acid didn't touch any of the officers themselves, but it hit the hoods of their cars. The acid ate through the metal of the hoods until they reached the vehicles' engines, causing the cars to explode.

Very few of the cops at these cars were aware of the impending danger to the cars in time, and even fewer managed to make it in time to at least get thrown off by the forces of the resulting explosions of their vehicles. All the other cops were instantly fried hotter and faster than an oven-cooked chicken. Some of these victims were even reduced to ash; whether or not any of their funerals would be burials or cremations was a moot point now, as those unfortunate victims would already be nothing more than ash in vases later; assuming that even their ashes would make it out of this one, if any.

The cops from the other sides of the street, seeing the explosions of the cars that the scorpion-like being attacked, had no choice but to leave their vehicles unattended so that they could go and take of this menace themselves. These cops squeezed their way past the accidentally-made blockade of crashed vehicles, or what remains of them there were since this new monster appeared, and even had to step over some dead bodies–some which were still somewhat intact, others melted through to expose the innards of their bodies–just so they could reach the scorpion-like being. That was a big mistake on these officers' part, as, again, like before, the bullets didn't seem to do anything to penetrate this man's hide, and he just took care of these officers as easily as his preceding victims.

As the carnage proceeded, Spider-Man swung in, and crouched on the ledge of a nearby rooftop to observe the horrors being conducted by this new supervillain. Several seconds later, he took out of his camera, set it to auto-shoot, and spout out a small web to stick it to the ledge beneath him, he spout out another web-line and swung in just as the scorpion-like being turned around to face him. The force of Spider-Man's double-kick to his chest sent him flying backwards into the brick-layered building behind him. He hit it with such force that, after he collapsed like a ragdoll to the ground, a few loose bricks followed with him, though only a couple hit him on the way down.

The scorpion-like being looked up from his prone position and up ahead to Spider-Man, who stood tall and proud even amidst numerous dead bodies in various dispositions of mutilation and decomposition and destroyed cars.

"Spider-Man," the being said in a gravelly voice as he pushed himself to his feet. "Just the man I wanted to see. I figured this random act of violence in the streets would get your attention."

"Have you ever considered e-mail as a first resort?" Spider-Man quipped even despite the catastrophe around him.

"Didn't think superheros had any. The name's Scorpion; the ultimate predator against the spider."

More green acid shot out from the Scorpion's tail as it rocketed towards Spider-Man. The superhero leapt up out of the way, and he flipped towards the supervillain to give him a double-kick to his unarmored face; the only thing on the Scorpion that was unarmored, in fact. But the supervillain blocked the attack by smacking his wrist against Spider-Man's incoming ankles, and flipped him back towards the roof of a destroyed car.

Spider-Man crashed through the roof on his back in an unoccupied vehicle, as the occupants of the car must've already left to escape the Scorpion's wrath, if they hadn't already been killed by him. He then saw the supervillain himself, having already leapt high into the air from his previous position, suddenly descend on him from a few storeys up. Spider-Man flipped back and out of the car from the hole in the roof that the Scorpion made of the superhero's body, and the supervillain himself, upon landing in the destroyed car, smashed right through it, rendering it into two pieces.

As Spider-Man landed on his feet, ready to face the Scorpion again, the latter picked up both pieces of the destroyed car and threw it right towards his opponent. Spider-Man leapt up high over the pieces, spout out two web-lines–one for each piece of the destroyed car–and used all his strength to throw it right back toward the Scorpion. However, the latter punched right through each piece with each fist, then, as Spider-Man began to descend back to the ground from his jump, the Scorpion leapt up high in a parabolic arc to meet Spider-Man. His timing was perfect, although Spider-Man was able to punch him right in his face and send him back down to the ground.

But as he landed on his back, he got up just as quickly and swung up his tail at Spider-Man, who was then just a few meters up from the ground. The superhero flew sideways for several meters, his body nearly licking the flames of the fires of one of the police cruisers that the Scorpion destroyed. Upon landing to the ground, Spider-Man rolled numerous times before gracefully recovering amidst this roll and flipping right back up to his feet, his back facing where the Scorpion was now. He swiftly turned around in time to see the Scorpion, having already made another superhuman leap, soar straight over the flaming cars, and upon landing, he charged straight for Spider-Man.

The superhero met his opponent head-on, and kicked out with a foot, which the Scorpion easily grabbed with both hands and use to swing Spider-Man around a couple times before flinging him off into a brick wall. But the agile superhero arrested his trajectory by grabbing a lamppost heading his way, and then swinging himself back as a human rocket for the Scorpion. His brief flight had him end up tackling the supervillain to the ground, where they rolled a few times, punching and kicking each other, until their roll stopped, and this punch-and-kick contest was ended by the Scorpion who managed to get past Spider-Man's defenses and kick him in the chest. The superhero went flying backwards, but once again stopped himself by spouting out a web-line to the Scorpion's chest, and then yanked himself back to his foe at full speed.

The Scorpion rolled out of the way, but Spider-Man spout out another web-line to a nearby building, which changed his momentum and swung him down to Scorpion's new position. There, he planted a firm, hard kick into his face, which he saw knocked out a few teeth, along with making his nose a little bloody. But even despite this, the Scorpion didn't back down, and he made a kick himself into Spider-Man's back that the superhero's spider-sense didn't warn him about in time. He then flew right through the window of the apartment of a family having a quiet time watching TV. Spider-Man's body smashed through the television set, destroying it and rendering it to pieces, and the family screamed and panicked at the violence brought into their home as Spider-Man lay prone on the floor.

The Scorpion charged to the apartment that Spider-Man landed in, and he busted a whole through the wall that had framed the broken window. The family decided it was best to leave, and they scurried out the door of their home while Spider-Man turned on his back and flipped backwards from a punch that the Scorpion nearly brought to his face. While the punch made a small crater in the floor, Spider-Man charged his opponent again, but the latter gave him a good uppercut that knocked him down to the floor. Then the Scorpion dragged Spider-Man outside by his ankle, and flung him toward a burning police car.

But Spider-Man regained his senses just in time to change his trajectory into a flip over the burning vehicle and landing on the other side completely flame-free. He spun around and saw Scorpion seemingly flying toward him, but Spider-Man jumped up and planted another good kick straight into the bridge of his opponent's nose. The latter flew back and landed on his back, which he then changed into a backwards roll and got up in a crouch. He stood up to his full height as Spider-Man swung towards him at full speed again, but the Scorpion moved out of the way while simultaneously giving his opponent a clothesline punch to the jaw, knocking him down on his back.

The supervillain then lifted up his foot and proceeded to drop it down to curb-stomp Spider-Man. But the latter grabbed the foot with both hands, threw it off his direction, also knocking out his foe's balance a bit, before he gracefully leapt to his feet and delivered another solid hit to the Scorpion's face, knocking out yet another tooth. The supervillain flew back from the blow, and had to push himself to his feet in order to get up. He stared at Spider-Man from a short distance with a growl, baring his teeth–the ones that Spider-Man hadn't knocked out, and whose gaps could be seen every time the Scorpion would open his mouth now.

Spider-Man prepared himself for another round with the Scorpion, but the supervillain surprised him by turning around and running away. The superhero decided to follow him, and swung after the Scorpion just as the latter reached a closed sewer manhole. He lifted off the lid and jumped down inside, the lid following him in its descent to close snugly around the hole. Spider-Man landed near the manhole, lifted it, and dropped in.

But once he landed, he looked around, but couldn't find any sign of the Scorpion.

"Damn," he muttered to himself.

He then heard the sewer lid above him move completely out of the way, and looked up to see Officer Barr and another cop above him pointing their weapons at him. "Freeze, Spider-Man!" Barr shouted.

But, as expected, the superhero ducked out of Barr and his colleague's line of aim to move down the sewage tunnel. In response, Barr motioned to several cops to follow him down so that they can chase Spider-Man. However, by the time they all made it down, they found out that Spider-Man was already gone.

A couple blocks away, Spider-Man came out of the sewers after lifting a manhole out of the way in an alley. He replaced the lid, and smelled himself.

"Whew!" he commented. "Boy, am I gonna need a tomato juice bath. And to think that it only works for skunks."

Snapping out his self-repertoire from something he noticed out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a light-skinned African-American teenage girl, along with two long-haired, stone-faced (they kind of looked like marijuana smokers rather than the strong-silent type stone-faced kind) Caucasian boys about the same age as her, standing in the only exit out of the alley with him. One of the boys had jet-black hair while the other had dirty blond hair.

The girl smiled a bit too enthusiastically. "Hi, Petey," she said, tilting her head in an odd, erratic direction. "You'll be seeing us around again sometime soon." Suddenly changing her attitude to business-like, "Enjoy the rest of the night, Mr. Parker," though she said it rather quickly compared to the slow, mock-ominous way she said he previous sentences. Once she was done speaking, she and her two male accomplices turned and walked out of the alley, disappearing out of sight from around the corner.

Spider-Man obviously followed so that he could know what the girl was talking about, who and the other guys with her were, how she his identity, etc., even if they would go out in the open about it. He found the three teens walking away in light foot traffic.

"Hey, wait," he called, following them.

The three teens turned around, the girl putting back on her overly-cheerful smile, while the blank expressions of the males stayed on. But before Spider-Man could get any closer to them, they just faded away into nothingness as they waved goodbye.

And no one else on the street noticed this happening.

"What the hell?" Spider-Man murmured to no one in particular, setting down the backup camera he just took out and used to take a photo of the three teens before they completely disappeared into thin air.

Shaking his head in clearance, he ignored the pedestrians who began to stare at him due to his fame (or infamy, depending on who you talked to) or why he had a camera in his hands. He then put the backup camera back in his pocket swung off to recollect his first camera before anyone either asked for his autograph or tried to throw vegetables at him in contempt.

The next day, Peter knocked on Brian and Bernie's apartment door, and it was the former who opened it.

"Who'd have figured it'd be you who'd want to see Bernie and I for a change?" Brian retorted.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Peter replied unenthusiastically. "I don't wanna see you two. I just came here because I was wondering whether or not either you or Bernie would recognize these three." As he said this, Brian invited him and closed the door while Peter took out the photograph he took of the three disappearing teenagers and handed it to Brian to look at. "No one else seemed to notice them on the street. And if you don't either, they're the ones who are looking straight at the camera when I took this shot. Do you see 'em?"

"Well, I don't think I see any..." Brian trailed off before his eyes widened, as if there was something on the photo that either just appeared, or hadn't noticed before. "Yes, now I see them. They just appeared right before my eyes." Interestingly, it always looked like those three teens had been in that picture to Peter. Brian looked right up at him. "Yes, I do know them, both in their true forms and in these disguises of theirs from previous interactions with them during our centuries of working in different universes. They were fellow demons I worked with, who were also one of the traitors to side with Ugly Kid. The girl's name is Jessica; the guy with the dark hair is Dillon; and the last guy is Tyler." He pointed them out on the photo before looking back up at Peter.

"They appeared before you?" Brian asked after he looked up from the photo.

"Yeah," Peter answered. "Can you explain why no one else there had noticed their presence, or why you didn't see them at first?"

"Oh, it's an old demon trick," Brian answered, setting the photo down on the coffee table of his shared apartment with Bernie. "But it only works if the demons themselves are in Hell, The same works with angels. But it doesn't work on angels nor demons who are disguised as humans or any other species exist in the Multiverse when they actually are in whatever mortal worlds they're in. You see, what they would do is that their spectral forms would only appear in the minds of whoever they want to see them. That explains why no one else saw them."

"So why do they appear at all in the photo, if it was only in my mind?" Peter asked.

"Well, when it comes to cameras, those who have seen them will be the only ones to view them in the pictures taken of them," Brian answered. "Now the reason that I can is that Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler must've wanted me to see in the photo what you saw of them."

"Why would they wanna do that?" Peter asked.

Brian shrugged. "Maybe they wanted me to identify them so I could explain who they are to you. Not sure why they'd want me to do that. Did they say anything to you that would explain their intentions?"

"Jessica revealed that she, Dillon, and Tyler all knew who I was, and that I'd see them soon," Peter answered.

"Huh," Brian said with an eyebrow raised. "I wonder why they do that. Usually, demons don't appear before mortals like that just to inform them of what they know about them, or just to tell them that they'd see 'em soon. It has happened before, because some demons like to screw with some mortals to make them look like psychos just for the hell of it, and Jessica by herself is a relatively lighthearted demon who may find some fun in it. Dillon and Tyler wouldn't, it's not their MO, even though they accompany Jessica a lot. But since it hasn't mentally scarred you, I'm not sure what they wanted from you, or how this even furthers Ugly Kid's agenda in taking over the Multiverse."

"Are you sure that those three didn't just fail to scare the wits out of me?" Peter asked. "Like it was their mission, assigned to them by Ugly Kid, to make me into emotional spaghetti so I'd be less of a threat to the Antichrist?"

"That's definitely not the case," Brian said. "If that was their mission, they surely would've succeeded; demons never fail in their missions to psychologically scar a person to the point of rendering them inadequate to do anything substantial in life anymore."

"Hmm," Peter scratched his chin in wonderment. "You know, for some reason, I think there maybe something connecting these three with the Scorpion."

"The Scorpion?" Brian asked.

"Yeah, didn't you read the _Bugle_ this morning?" Peter asked. "My fight as Spider-Man against that freak–"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I've read the paper, it was on the front page," Brian interrupted. "But what do you have to base this presumed connection between the Scorpion and Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler?"

"Well, nothing really," Peter answered honestly. "I mean, it just occurred after my fight with the Scorpion. But I mean, why didn't occur at any other time? Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler appearing before me, I mean?"

"I'm in the dark about it as much as you are," Brian said. "But that sure isn't something to base a connection between one of the supervillains you fight on a regular basis and something we're not even sure even furthers Ugly Kid's plans."

"I know, I know," Peter sighed. "But don't you think you should investigate this with me?"

"You mean without Bernie?" Brian asked back.

"I'm not sure Bernie would do too well in an investigation like this," Peter said.

"Well, as much as I'm inclined to leave Bernie out of this, I can't anyway," Brian said. "As much as Bernie has been sent by God to annoy the crap out of me, he also looks out for me to make sure that I don't try to turn on the angels, whether or not I work for Satan or Ugly Kid."

"Speaking of Bernie, where is he?" Peter asked, looking around the apartment.

"He's in bed, still sleeping, not looking out to make sure I don't try to turn on the angels," Brian said sardonically.

"Huh," Peter said with a nod. "Well, if we have to take Bernie along with us to look for the Scorpion and see if there is a connection between him and Ugly Kid, I guess we'll have to take Bernie along."

"Not until we first get permission from Miss Bitch–I mean, Beatrice Lange," Brian said. "You won't tell her I called her a bitch, will you?"

Peter shook his head. "So long as you don't tell Bernie that I considered leaving him out of this because he's an idiot."

"Oh, he wouldn't take it so personally, he's pretty much aware of his own stupidity," Brian said. "It is interesting how he actually demonstrates some real bouts of intelligence though."

"Yeah, that is surprising," Peter commented as Brian turned around and walked to Bernie's bedroom, Peter following him.

Brian opened the door and called, "Rise and shine, you stupid idiot," even as the alarm clock rang with an intentionally irritating buzz.

Bernie finally awoke rather groggily, and banged the clock silent. "Why would you call me a stupid idiot, Brian?"

"And you said he was aware of his stupidity," Peter murmured in Brian's ear so that Bernie couldn't hear.

Ignoring Peter, Brian said, "Bernie, your alarm clock has been on for ten minutes already. Why aren't you up yet?"

"Well, haven't you thought that I might've developed some kind of wall to my ears to the irritatingness of this clock?"

Brian rubbed the bridge of his nose in annoyance. "Bernie..." He trailed off before stopping himself and saying, "I've already prepared breakfast for you."

"Okay," Bernie said, and then got out of bed. He followed Peter and Brian out of his room, only to be disappointed that there was no food on the kitchen table. "Hey, where's breakfast?"

"You'll get it when we go to McDonald's later on," Brian said. "I only said I prepared breakfast for you so you'd get your ass up."

"Well, if that's the case, then why should I believe you if you do take me to McDonald's if it's just another lie?" Bernie asked.

"Look, Bernie, I'll get you breakfast from McDonald's if you don't believe that Brian will do it," Peter said. "Now, look, there was a supervillain called the Scorpion I fought last night, and after my battle with the Scorpion, I met up with three teenage demons. Now we're gonna call Beatrice Lange so we can get permission to see if there's a connection."

Bernie shrugged. "Okay."

The three of them headed over to the computer, and as Brian began to set the controls up to contact Lange, he murmured to no one in particular, "I don't see why the hell we need to get permission to do this investigation as if we were fricking children–Oh, Miss Lange, good, communications between us are better than before, it seems!" Lange's stern face had appeared on the monitor just as Brian said "Children."

"What was it you were saying about children, Brian?" Lange asked, unfazed.

"Umm..."

"Uh, Miss Lange," Peter interjected, "if you don't mind, there is something that I would like to report."

"Go ahead, Mr. Parker," Lange said without preamble.

Peter briefly turned and fired a web-line to the photo he left on Brian and Bernie's coffee table. He yanked it over into his hand and then showed it to Lange. "Do you see any three particular people in this photograph, Miss Lange?"

"No one I know of–hey, wait, yes, now I do," Lange said. "Brian, aren't those three of the demons you once worked with?"

"Yes, they are, Miss Lange," Brian answered.

"Wait, what're you guys talking about?" Bernie asked as he craned his neck to see the photo. Peter shifted the photo from Lange's sight into Bernie's. "Well, I don't see anybody–hey, it's Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler!" Bernie looked from the picture to Peter. "What did they say to you, Peter?"

"Bernie," Lange interjected, "let me be the one to ask the questions about this matter."

"Yes, Miss Lange," Bernie said downtrodden, looking at his feet like a sad puppy.

Lange shifted her attention from Bernie to Peter, and then asked pretty the same question. "Mr. Parker, what did they say to you?"

Peter told her what he told Brian, what he and Brian previously discussed about the matter, and concluded it with his unsupported hypothesis that there was a connection between Ugly Kid and the Scorpion.

"So you're asking me permission as to whether or not you, Brian, and Bernie can investigate further into this matter, Mr. Parker, even though you have no evidence to support this claim about a connection between the Antichrist and the recent supervillain who you fought?" Lange asked.

"Yes, I am, Miss Lange," Peter said with a nod.

After a moment of brief contemplation, Lange said, "Very well, you and the boys with you can investigate the matter, though you will be contacted for any mission that is actually assured to be connected to the Antichrist."

"Thank you, Miss Lange," Peter said as Brian moved to cut off communication with the woman.

"However," Lange said, cutting off Brian's attempt to shut off the communication with her, "as per this investigation, your goal is to capture the Scorpion and find out from him if there is indeed a connection between him and the Antichrist's plans in any way, even if he doesn't know about it, if at least directly."

"Well, wait, if we caught and interrogated him to find out if there is a connection between him and Ugly Kid, how would we be able to confirm that if he doesn't know-" Bernie tried to ask, but Brian waved him silent.

"We'll accomplish our mission, Miss Lange," Brian said, "as per the requirements you give to us."

"That's good to hear," Lange said. "Lange out." Then the monitor turned black.

Peter, Brian, and Bernie all left the apartment. And as they left, Peter said, "Trust me, guys, it won't be easy to catch the Scorpion. He's a hard sucker to fight."

"Well, Lange expects us to take this guy in one way or another," Brian said. "And even though she maybe a bitch who'll give us mission parameters that maybe impossible to accomplish, we still have to perform our duties in defeating Ugly Kid, and blah, blah, blah."

Later, after Peter was Spider-Man and Brian and Bernie were both properly disguised in their ski masks, they all sat on the ledge of a rooftop several blocks from their apartment building.

"Okay, so, now what?" Bernie asked. "What do we do, just wait for the Scorpion to appear and attack or something?"

"That's the idea, Bernie," Spider-Man said.

"Well, what if he doesn't appear today?" Bernie asked.

"Yeah, or what if we can find him faster by going underground or something?" Brian also asked.

"For some reason, I think he'll appear," Spider-Man said. "Even if it'll be several blocks away."

"Oh, wonderful," Brian said sardonically. "Once again, we're being led along to this by these unsupported guesses of yours. I'm just glad you're not a crazy mental patient who says that we can defeat Ugly Kid by jumping off this roof and plummeting to our deaths right now."

"I don't know, I'm starting to think that just might work," Spider-Man said with a straight tone.

Brian and Bernie both looked at him nervously.

"I'm just kidding with you two," Spider-Man said as he broke out in laughter.

As Brian sighed in relief, Bernie said, "That's not funny, man."

Then, all of a sudden, the street below the trio exploded into debris, halting the traffic, and the Scorpion jumped right out, immediately causing chaos just as he did the previous night.

"Hey, maybe there is a chance we can catch this guy and find out if there is a connection between him and Ugly Kid," Bernie said.

Spider-Man then pushed himself off the ledge of the roof, and he descended upon the Scorpion. He punched him in the face upon landing, stunning him enough for him to kick the supervillain in the sternum and kick him straight over a pile of the crashed and destroyed cars. As the Scorpion landed hard on the other side of that blockade, Spider-Man leapt over that pile of vehicles and soared straight in to continue his fight with the Scorpion.

Meanwhile, Brian and Bernie were left sitting on the roof. The former looked behind and around him to search through the rest of the roof in order to find out how he and his angelic, yet idiotic, counterpart could get out; considering that Spider-Man deposited them onto this rooftop, they couldn't get off via emergency stairs, because there wasn't any emergency stairs.

"So how do we get down from here?" Bernie asked.

Before Brian could say anything, he looked out to one building on the opposite side of the street, and he found Majes observing the fight between Spider-Man and the Scorpion. Brian then looked around, and sure enough, he found Niske and Botya also observing the fight from the windows of different buildings; from different perspectives to make sure they can get as many points-of-view as possible.

"Well, what do you know," Brian said. "Looks like Peter was right; there really is a connection between Ugly Kid and the Scorpion."

"What?" Bernie asked.

Brian pointed out to Bernie the different places that Niske, Botya, and Majes were all in, and none of the three demons seemed to notice them.

"Oh," Bernie nodded. Then he turned to look at Brian and said, "You know, I also said that there was a connection between them."

Ignoring that comment, Brian said, "Look, you go to that end of the roof–" he pointed the direction Bernie needed to go, then pointed the opposite direction "–and I'll go that way. Maybe there're emergency stairs we can use to get off this roof and get to at least two of those demons." He waved his arm to where Niske, Botya, and Majes were all in.

"Yeah, but which demons do we go for?" Bernie asked.

Brian shook his head. "We'll worry about that after we get off this roof. Just go over there." He pointed over to where he wanted Bernie to go again.

"Okay," Bernie replied with a nod.

Then the two of them got to their feet, and they went to their intended directions.

"There are stairs over here," both of them said simultaneously after they went to their respective directions.

Knowing Bernie's fluctuating stupidity even in the most crucial times, Brian decided to spare any arguments as to which stairs they should take when he said, "Okay, I'll come over there. You lead the way down."

"Okay," Bernie said again as Brian headed over to his direction. Once Brian was with him, Bernie led the way down as they both jumped off the ledge and landed on a flight of metal stairs.

Less than two minutes later, both of them reached the ground, and Bernie asked, "So which demons do we go for?"

"Uh..."

~o~

Once the fight between Spider-Man and the Scorpion led them around a corner at the next block, Niske took out her walkie-talkie and communicated to Botya and Majes, "All right, men, we have to leave our current positions so we can monitor the fight ourselves."

"Why can't we just watch it on the news?" Botya asked. "The media already seems to be here." This was supported as Niske noted that, outside, a news helicopter appeared and headed the direction that Spider-Man and the Scorpion headed to in their fight.

However, Niske also saw from her position that pathetic idealist, Brian, and his idiotic angelic counterpart Bernie at the alley. They were both pointing to Botya and Majes's position. Apparently, they decided that they would go after them.

"Normally, that would be a good idea, Botya," Niske said. "But we have to go nevertheless. Our positions are compromised; the idealist and his idiot guardian angel know where we are. We have to go now."

"Oh, c'mon, why can't you let us fight 'em?" Majes asked. "I've been itching for a rematch against that moronic angel since last week in that crappy apartment."

"As fun as that might be, I don't think that's necessary, Majes," Botya said. "We're supposed to serve Ugly Kid, not have fun."

"Indeed, Botya," Niske said. "Let's go now."

"Oh, all right," Majes said unenthusiastically.

~o~

Brian and Bernie, who had just split up and decide to go to Botya and Majes's positions respectively, both stopped dead in their tracks just as they reached the sides of the streets that the two male demons' positions were at. They did this because they saw that those two demons had left, and saw that the same was true for Niske as she was also gone from where she once was.

The human-disguised demon and angel allied with each other ran back to each other.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Bernie asked.

"Well, what say we go help Peter take down the Scorpion?" Brian asked.

"Okay," Bernie agreed.

They both made their move, only to find that Spider-Man and the Scorpion were both gone.

"Okay, so what do we do now?" Bernie asked again.

"Oh, I don't know, find them?" Brian asked.

"Okay," Bernie said again.

"You know, you saying 'okay' all the time is really getting annoying," Brian said as he led Bernie down the street to find out where Spider-Man and the Scorpion went in their fight.

~o~

The Scorpion threw Spider-Man straight through a light pole, and it snapped in two pieces whose top half collapsed before the supervillain's feet as his opponent landed hard on his back on the sidewalk. Then, after Spider-Man recovered and leapt to his feet two seconds later, the Scorpion grabbed the broken light pole and threw it right into his foe's direction. But Spider-Man flipped over, grabbing the pole with both hands as he went, and when he landed on his feet after he came out of his flip, he swung it right down to the Scorpion's head.

The supervillain didn't react fast enough and it smashed to pieces, stunning him and giving Spider-Man enough time to charge him and make a direct punch to the face. But the Scorpion recovered just in time, ducked beneath the blow, and came back up with a good uppercut that sent Spider-Man flying upwards. However, before he was even halfway up to roof level of the street both he and the Scorpion were fighting in, he spout out a web-line to the pavement below and yanked himself back to continue his second battle with the supervillain.

But once Spider-Man landed and turned to face the Scorpion again, the latter turned away and began to run towards someone. Spider-Man looked, and found that the supervillain was heading for Mary Jane, who just happened to be on the same street that he and the Scorpion were fighting at, but had been too busy fighting him to notice her here. Now, the supervillain was heading towards her; presumably so that he could use a hostage in order to find a different way to kill his superhero opponent aside from simply continuing the fight. Spider-Man then ran towards MJ as well, but the Scorpion got to her first, grabbed her in one arm, and held her out in front of him as a human shield, his acid-spitting tail aimed at her head.

_How many times do MJ and I have to face this old cliché?_ Spider-Man wondered.

"Don't move, Spider-Man, or I'll–" The Scorpion didn't finish the sentence, as a somehow-flying ski-masked Brian tackled right into MJ's side and right out of the supervillain's threatening grasp. At the same time, this caused a reflexive action on the part of the Scorpion's tail to spit acid, and it spat that acid just as the tip of his tail was aimed straight in his unprotected face.

"No!" Spider-Man shouted as the Scorpion, killed by his own extremely corrosive acid in the face, collapsed on his front, dead. The superhero then looked over and saw Bernie, just lowering his arms from an action that looked like he threw something; it must've been Brian, considering how the latter just flew right into Mary Jane.

After Mary Jane and Brian got to their feet, the latter looked over to the Scorpion's body and muttered, "Oh, damn." Bernie ran over to approach the supervillain's corpse, and turned him over on his back to observe his horribly scarred visage.

"Oops," he said. "I killed him."

Then police cruisers drove around the corner. Knowing his cue, Spider-Man webbed Brian and Bernie onto his back in a simultaneous action as he swiftly jumped up, despite the added weight to his back, and swung away.

~o~

After the three of them got back to their apartment, Peter, Brian, and Bernie reported on what happened with the Scorpion. Though Lange first expressed disapproval over the fact that they failed to bring back the supervillain alive in order to discern whether or not he had a connection to the Antichrist, Brian and Bernie interjected that Niske, Botya, and Majes were observing the fight at precise positions; most likely to report what happened in the fight for Ugly Kid, thus proving Peter's theory that there was indeed a connection between Ugly Kid and the Scorpion.

"Very well; you at least know there is a connection," Lange said. "But what is it?"

"Uh... we don't know about that," Brian said.

"Indeed," Lange said with a measurable restrain of contempt. "Nevertheless, at least this threat has been removed. But our better spies will look into what purpose the Scorpion had served for Ugly Kid, if he hadn't already served it. Is there anything else to report?"

"No," Peter, Brian, and Bernie all answered.

"Very well," Lange said. "Lange out." Then the computer monitor shut off.

After Peter left Brian and Bernie's apartment, he found Mary Jane knocking on his door. "MJ?"

She turned around, and said, "Oh, hey, Peter. Uh, what were you doing in that apartment?"

"Oh, I was just hanging out with a couple of the neighbors," Peter answered. "Trying to make some new friends and all."

"Right," MJ replied. "So were you just about to head back into your own apartment or..."

"Uh, yes, I was."

"Will you invite me in?"

Peter looked at MJ with a perplexed look that gradually dawned to realization. "Yeah. Sure."

MJ smiled. "Thanks."

Then Peter moved past MJ, opened the door, and politely invited her in first. He followed suit, and closed and locked the door behind him.

After a little more consoling between them regarding Harry's loss, it became one of the best nights for either of them.


	5. Chapter 5

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds

Episode 5: Sins of the Past

Nearly two years earlier, Ben Parker sat in his car, waiting for his nephew, Peter, to come out of the New York Public Library.

All of a sudden, there was a tap on the driver's window. Startled, Ben looked over, and found a man with a gun pointing in his direction. Not knowing how to react in this situation, Ben was dumbfounded as the crook opened his unlocked door.

"I need your car," the thug said as he pulled the old man out of his vehicle. To Ben, he didn't sound very enthusiastic like a lot of other thugs in the city would be when they pulled a car jacking; it sounded as if this particular thug was somehow forced into doing this, an action he didn't want to do.

"Listen, sir, you don't wanna do this," Ben said, relatively calm considering the circumstances; he dealt with far worse men in all his years in living in this city, and he had a gut instinct that he could resolve this situation with no violence or theft.

"I know that, but I have no choice," the crook said, his tone somewhat apologetic.

"Look, why don't you just put the gun down, and go home?" Ben asked, looking straight into the thug's eyes.

When the crook looked back, what Ben saw there was a sudden look of realization, as if the old man before him had miraculously found the cure for cancer; a cancer the thug may had, and sought so long for even a brief respite.

Suddenly, another man, presumably this thug's partner, accidentally bumped into the man before Ben. The gun in his hand accidentally went off, and the thug before the old man screamed as the latter collapsed to the ground.

The thug's partner, with a briefcase with must've been money, had already gotten into Ben's car, and decided to drive off without his dumbfounded partner. Even despite his old age, Ben didn't immediately die from a gunshot that would have killed someone considerably younger, and his life would hang on a tenuous balance for several more minutes as he watched his car drive off, along with the deeply regretful thug run away.

And even after a crowd blockaded by a few police officers around his body had gathered, and Peter had broke through to hold his uncle's hand in the old man's last few moments, Ben still didn't really hold anything against the thug who shot him; he did feel angry at the crook who took his car though. However, he felt pity to that crook who shot him that was shared with the thought of how his wife, May, and their nephew would cope in his loss.

After Ben died there, his nephew, who had secretly gained superhuman spider powers unbeknownst to anyone else at the time, went after the crook who stole his car, believing that he was the one who killed his uncle; indirectly, that was true, as he did startle his partner into pulling the trigger. Peter managed to track the carjacker right into an abandoned warehouse, where he beat the living daylights out of him before he saw who he was; the man who he let go from stealing money at the wrestling ring that Peter himself fought in that night.

Ben Parker's nephew defeated that thug, who had suffered a fall that very well nearly killed him. While Peter thought that who he believed to be his uncle's killer was gone, Dennis Carradine, the carjacker, would spend several weeks in a prison hospital to heal from the broken bones he suffered as a direct result of the fall, along with some minor bruises from when he was beaten and a twisted wrist. Then, later, after Peter graduated from high school months later, he would become New York's guardian superhero, Spider-Man.

As all this happened, Ben's true murderer, Flint Marko, would spend almost the next two years, continually running from the law as he tried to get money for his sick daughter, Penny.

The Antichrist Ugly Kid, whose plans were in ruling all of reality, gathered up what useful information his number one spy knew about Spider-Man and his alter ego, Peter Parker, and learned something particularly interesting; while Parker believed who he thought was his uncle's killer to be dead rather than in prison, having healed from his wounds on that fateful night long ago, the real culprit was still on the loose. On his orders, Ugly Kid's own spies in the N.Y.P.D. pulled up what files they could find regarding at least rumors of Flint Marko's whereabouts. It was rumored that he was running around in New Jersey.

Ugly Kid then sent out a few more spies to find Marko in New Jersey, but not to come into direct contact with him, and those spies confirmed the crook's presence there, which was something that the police themselves weren't too sure of. Afterwards, the Antichrist managed to pull a few strings to set something in motion.

To have Spider-Man know who his uncle's killer really is.

It had been less than two years since Dennis Carradine was incarcerated, and now, unexpectedly, an anonymous benefactor had bailed him out finally. Carradine was now out on the streets, enjoying freedom, and his benefactor had even given him a new job, even if it was as a fruit stand vendor. His life of crime was now over–even if he did miss it somewhat.

Around the corner of where Carradine's fruit stand currently was, the man who put him in jail, Peter Parker, and his new girlfriend, Mary Jane Watson, were taking a nice leisurely walk, as it was Peter's day off. The photos Peter took of Spider-Man's final fight with the Scorpion three days earlier had paid him enough to pay for not only his rent, but to take Mary Jane out on a date to see a movie. Sure, as usual, the photos used for the various spots on different angles for the story of Spider-Man's final fight with the Scorpion were made to be part of J. Jonah Jameson's tool to continue slandering the vigilante at every chance he got. But to Peter, Jameson could call his superhero alter ego the Antichrist for all he cared–even as he pretty much figured that what Brian told him about that whole deal was true ever since the two of them, and Bernie, had to fight Niske, Botya, and Majes.

Peter and Mary Jane continued their stroll, just chitchatting about their lives and how much they continued to miss Harry, even if the grief was so much less than during or shortly after his funeral. That came to an end when they reached the corner, and Peter saw the one person he didn't think he'd ever see again in a million years, even if he went to Hell itself and saw this guy's spirit here.

It was the man who killed Uncle Ben, who was now selling oranges to pedestrians on the street who were interested. Ben's murderer was blissfully selling the fruit until he looked off to his side, and saw Peter's face, staring back at him angrily.

"Peter, what's wrong?" Mary Jane asked.

Immediately, Ben's killer abruptly closed the stand, even as it was hours from its closing schedule, and he ran off, attracting some nearby attention, none of them being cops, for there didn't seem to be any in this area right now.

"Hey, what's with that guy?" MJ asked when she noticed Ben's murder/fruit stand vendor running away.

"MJ, go home," Peter said without looking at his girlfriend.

"What?" she asked once he took two steps forward.

He stopped in his tracks and turned around to look her in the eye. "Just do it. I have some unfinished business to take care of."

Peter turned back, not waiting for a response from his girlfriend, and he charged across the sidewalk to chase down the man who killed his uncle all those years ago.

Carradine rounded an alley, finding that there was another exit at the opposite end, and he charged for it in order to escape the man who put him in prison; considering that he believed that he killed his uncle, Carradine didn't think that explaining that he was let out legally would help him out.

But before he was even halfway through the alley, he was tackled down to the ground from behind. Then, once he was turned on his back, the guy who put him in jail gave Carradine a direct punch to the face before the former crook even had a chance to defend himself. Once the whiteness from his vision cleared, he found that his arm was now in a painful position behind his back as the rest of his body was pressed to a brick wall in the alley.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Peter said to Ben's murderer without any restrained contempt.

"Please!" Carradine cried out. "I was let out early! I was given a new job! Okay? Just please, leave me alone!"

"Who the hell would wanna let you out early?" Peter asked in a tone that mixed retort with genuine curiosity.

"I have no idea!" Carradine answered. "All I know is that I've been given a new lease on life, and I'm not putting it to waste, man!"

Carradine was then spun around and shoved back into the wall behind him so that his eyes were on even level with the man who was indirectly responsible for having his bones broken for weeks.

"Listen, man!" Carradine said. "I didn't kill your uncle!"

Peter snorted. "Yeah, right. And I'm the President of the United States."

"No, no, it's true," Carradine said. "I know who killed your uncle. It was my partner, Flint Marko. While you let me get away with the money, Flint got him outta the car so that he and I could take it. But he shot him, and I took off without him; the cops were already coming thanks to the sound of the gunshot."

"Oh, yeah?" Peter asked. "If that's so, then where's this Flint Marko then?"

"I don't know," Carradine answered. "I didn't see him in prison, so he must still be out there, if he hadn't already been caught."

"Peter!" MJ called out from the end of the alley that Peter and Carradine came in through. The two men looked at her as she called out, "What're you doing?"

Peter and Carradine turned back to regard each other, and the former let go of the latter.

"So you're a fruit stand vendor now, huh?" Peter asked.

"Yeah," Carradine answered with a nervous nod.

A tense moment between them followed as Peter stared down at the man who may just be lying when he said he didn't kill his uncle. "Just watch yourself," Peter said before turning away and headed back to Mary Jane.

As they both left the alley, MJ briefly looked back over to regard Carradine in curiosity as he leaned back against the wall behind him in relief. She turned back to her boyfriend and asked, "What was that all about?"

"Long story, MJ," Peter said. "And I'm gonna find out if what he told me was the truth."

Later that day, Peter walked into N.Y.P.D. He walked straight up to the officer behind the counter, who was currently busy on some paperwork to notice Peter right now. Peter recognized her as the cop who tried to hold him back from joining his uncle's side in his last moments.

"Excuse me," Peter calmly asserted himself, keeping his emotions in check with the anticipation of finding out if the man he thought was Ben's murderer was just the guy who stole his car.

The clerk looked up, set down her pen, and asked, "May I help you?"

"Do you have anything on a guy named Flint Marko?" Peter asked, not caring if the cop did recognize him or not.

The clerk regarded Peter with a curious look before sitting back in an attentive stance. "What do you know about Marko, kid?"

"I ran into a guy who knew him," Peter answered. "I thought that guy killed my uncle, Ben Parker, nearly two years ago in a carjacking incident."

"Ben Parker?" the cop asked before putting her hand to her chin in wonderment. "The name does sound familiar." She looked back at Peter again and her eyes widened in recognition. "Hey, don't I know you?"

"Yeah, you tried to hold me back from my uncle who then died of a gunshot," Peter affirmed without sounding too angry about it.

"Hey, yeah, it is you," the cop said. She held out her hand. "Officer Jeanne DeWolffe, at your service."

"Peter Parker. It's nice to meet you, Officer DeWolffe," Peter said neutrally as he shook her hand. "Now, did Flint Marko really kill my uncle, or was it Dennis Carradine after all?"

"Well, if you really must know, Peter–may I call you Peter?" DeWolffe asked.

Peter shrugged. "Yeah, sure, go ahead, Officer DeWolffe."

"Well, Peter, we at first thought that Carradine was the one who killed your uncle," DeWolffe explained. "But when we interrogated him about it and his carjacking of your uncle's vehicle, he confessed to stealing the car, but not to killing your uncle. To that, he laid blame to his partner, Marko. We interviewed some witnesses who saw the shooting and the subsequent carjacking, and they all confirmed that it was indeed Marko who shot your uncle."

Then Peter's eyes widened in shock. After all this time, him being Spider-Man, saving the lives of others he didn't know about, stopping crooks and supervillains from rampaging through the streets–all because he thought he had let the man who killed his uncle go before the latter event happened. And now, he was being told that Uncle Ben's death wasn't his fault after all, and that it couldn't be stopped even if he did stop Carradine when he took all that money?

DeWolffe saw the unfortunate surprise reflected in Peter's eyes. "Look, kid, I'm sorry. I know this must be hard for you, thinking that your uncle's killer met justice, but–"

"Where is Marko?" Peter abruptly interrupted.

Taken aback, DeWolffe made an exception of Peter's sudden outburst and said, "Ya plan on goin' after him?"

"So he's not in jail then," Peter surmised, avoiding DeWolffe's question.

"Not that I know, but I'll check the records just in case," she said. She then pulled out a case file beneath her desk and opened it up to reveal a file on Flint Marko, and Peter saw the face from an upside down angle. But considering how he viewed things like this frequently as Spider-Man, he had no trouble discerning what Marko looked like right side up. As he focused on Marko's face, DeWolffe looked at the information at the side of the photo. When she was done, she looked back up at Peter and said, "Sorry, he's still on the loose."

"I see," Peter said. "Thank you. That's all I needed to know. Goodbye, Officer DeWolffe." With that, he turned around and began heading out to the exit of the police department.

"Wait, kid," DeWolffe stopped him when he was halfway to the door. "Are you planning on going after him?"

Peter turned back to face the cop with a disinterested look, as if he regarded her as some kind of insect that he can easily squash. "What if I am?"

"Well, I'm afraid I can't let you do that," she said. "That's the job of the police. We don't tolerate vigilante actions in this city; especially now that Spider-Man's back."

"It's your job, huh?" Peter asked.

DeWolffe nodded. "Yes, it is."

"Then why is a common crook like Flint Marko been out on the loose for the past two years, huh?" Peter asked, restrained anger breaking through what calm he was able to muster earlier. "Wouldn't you guys have found him already? If you guys can't find him, then who can?"

"Certainly not vigilantes," DeWolffe retorted.

Without another word, Peter turned back around and walked out the door. DeWolffe tried to follow, but by the time she made it out the door, she looked around, but couldn't find Peter anywhere.

A few blocks away, Spider-Man was already swinging off to find out where Flint Marko was.

Back in their apartment, Brian and Bernie, who were just relaxing and watching some TV, suddenly shot to their feet from the sound of the odd buzzing noise that let them know that Lange was calling them. While Bernie rushed over to the computer to activate the monitor so that Lange could communicate to them, Brian headed over to Peter's apartment to tell him that there was a new mission for them.

But after the first knock, Peter didn't answer. A few seconds later, Brian tried again, but still, the door didn't open. So Brian took out his cellphone and called Peter.

Meanwhile, as Spider-Man's cellphone rang, he let go of the current web-line he was currently holding on to and swung himself down to a rooftop. He took out his phone and saw that it was Brian calling him.

It was most likely a new mission that Lange assigned for him, Brian, and Bernie, Spider-Man correctly guessed. So, instead of answering it, he shut off his phone, replaced it, and continued to swing off to find Flint Marko.

Back outside the door of Peter's apartment, Brian, seeing that Peter wasn't answering his cell, decided to cancel the call, and returned back to the apartment he shared with Bernie. He sat down with him, as the two of them faced Lange on the computer monitor.

"Where is Mr. Parker, Brian?" Lange asked.

Brian shrugged. "I don't know. I checked his apartment and I tried to call him, but nothing."

"Well, wherever he is, try to find him along the way of your mission," Lange said. "And that mission is to investigate a recent sighting of Niske, Botya, and Majes down in the Bronx. Search the Bronx and kill those three demons when you get the chance. Inform Spider-Man of this objective when you find him. Lange out." The monitor immediately blanked out to let Brian and Bernie go about their new mission.

~o~

Spider-Man spent the next two hours, swinging about New York, trying to find Flint Marko until nighttime fell over the city. He already searched the Bronx–and left there long before Brian and Bernie would arrive to try to fulfill their mission objectives–along with Uptown, Downtown, and several other places in New York. By the time he got to New Jersey, the last place he would look, he thought he would just give up, go home, and rejoin Brian and Bernie with whatever mission they needed to accomplish.

But it was in New Jersey where Spider-Man finally found Marko.

As the vigilante hid behind the ledge of a rooftop in order to avoid the searching glare of a couple cops in a passing police cruiser, he peered over the ledge he hid, and heard a noise off to the side in the direction of an alley. That noise was the rustling of garbage, and it sounded a bit too loud to be caused by a rat or another similarly small creature. Spider-Man immediately saw Flint Marko peer out from out of the dumpster he hid himself in and look both ways at each open end of the alley before vaulting out of the mess of garbage.

Marko ran out of one end of the alley, and Spider-Man followed him along from the ledge of the roof that overlooked that alley. Ben Parker's real murderer turned in one direction once he exited the alley and made a dash. Spider-Man jumped over a couple rooftops behind Marko to follow him. The crook stopped dead in his tracks once he saw red and blue lights flashing that only came from a police cruiser from around the corner up ahead. A car had been stopped there, and a guy came out with a gun, which he tried to shoot at the cops that were there. But it jammed, and the crook was immediately tackled to the ground by those two cops so that he could be handcuffed and arrested. At this, Marko quickly looked around and dodged into the next alleyway before the cops, having arrested the thug, could notice him. Meanwhile, Spider-Man already landed on the ledge that overlooked this alley.

Although there was no open exit at the end of this alley, there were metal stairs that Marko decided to climb up in order to reach to the rooftops. He climbed about three floors before Spider-Man unexpectedly swung in and kicked both his feet into the crook's chest. He flew back over the railing behind him, and crashed right on top of a garbage can, which tumbled along with him to the ground, spilling out all of its trash.

Lying on his back, Marko pushed himself up, only to find Spider-Man land at his feet just as he sat up on his haunches. The crook looked up in fear at the vigilante, who looked down at him before simply saying in a threatening tone, "Flint Marko."

"Spider-Man!" Marko said. "How do you know my name? What do you want?"

Before the conversation could go any further, they both looked in the direction of the alley's exit and heard an incoming car coming in from around the corner of the alley. It must have been the police cruiser they both saw before Marko entered the alley.

When the police cruiser that was flashing those lights drove by, neither of the two cops in the car saw anything in the alley, and they resumed their drive down to N.Y.P.D. to put the punk they had in the back behind bars.

Meanwhile, Spider-Man hung Marko upside down via a web-line on the crook's ankle. "Please! Don't drop me! I'll do anything you want! Just don't kill me!"

Then, unexpectedly, Spider-Man let go of the web-line attached to Marko's ankle, and he descended right towards the ground in a death scream.

But his descent was abruptly stopped when Spider-Man had just as quickly grabbed the web-line after he dropped a few floors to catch Marko in time. The vigilante then leapt straight back up to the roof with Marko still hanging on the web-line in his hand.

"Why are you doing this?" Marko cried. "What do you want from me?"

"First, I want you to remember Ben Parker," Spider-Man said.

Marko, still terrified under his circumstances, looked up from the ground several levels below him to look up at Spider-Man and asked, "Who?" After that, he was dropped again, and made it a few more floors closer to the ground before he was caught again.

Spider-Man made two jumps back up to the roof from where he caught Marko this time and angrily asked, "Do you remember, two years ago, the old man you shot down in cold blood? Huh? Huh?" He dropped Marko once more, and he still screamed as he descended, only to be caught in time and then pulled all the way back up to look into the reflectiveness of Spider-Man's lenses "Well? Do you? Do you?"

Marko, fear written all over his face, stammered in terror for a bit before managing to ask, "What does it matter you anyway?"

Spider-Man pulled Marko a few inches closer to him before yelling in his face, "Everything!"

Then he threw Marko right back overhead, and he crashed near the opposite ledge of the rooftop. The crook gradually pushed himself to his feet before Spider-Man spout out a web-line for his chest and reeled him in for a good smack to the face that sent Marko crashing to the ground of the roof behind him. Spider-Man then picked Marko up by the collar of his green-striped shirt, and gave him another punch that sent him flying back a few meters.

But before Spider-Man could further attack Marko, his spider-sense tingled, and he swerved around to find Niske, Botya, and Majes standing right there. Niske kicked him straight in the chest and sent him flying back straight over Marko. Then the three demons crowded around the crook and Niske threw down something in her hand that produced white smoke. Spider-Man jumped right into the smoke, but came out the other side rolling almost off the ledge of the rooftop in front of him. He turned around and saw the smoke dissipate into nothingness before his eyes.

~o~

In the Bronx, at Brian's command, Bernie kicked open the backdoor of yet another abandoned warehouse they've searched in this part of New York.

"This is the last abandoned warehouse here in the Bronx, Bernie," Brian said. "Niske, Botya, and Majes have got to be here."

The two of them searched the entire abandoned warehouse for several minutes before they looked right in the last room. That room was sparsely furnished, and in the center was a bomb that was ticking down from 00:00:15.

"Run, Bernie!" Brian exclaimed.

Then they turned around, ran right through the threshold of the penultimate room they searched in the warehouse, and Bernie was the one to crash his own body through the window, its glass shards falling to the ground below, so that Brian could follow him without trouble. They descended a few storeys above the ground, but they didn't even hit the concrete below before the warehouse exploded.

The force of the resulting shockwave sent the two of them flying straight over the fence that the warehouse had been surrounded by, and they both landed simultaneously atop a parked car.

Brian and Bernie turned on their fronts in agony atop of the car and looked at the fiery inferno of the burning abandoned warehouse.

"Well, that was an expertly handled cliché, wouldn't you say, Brian?" Bernie asked.

"You know, you watch way too many cheesy 80's action movies, Bernie," Brian replied. "But yes, I do agree, Bruce Willis couldn't have done that escape from the explosion routine any better."

The two of them looked back at the burning warehouse, and rolled off the car to make themselves scarce as police, medics, and firefighters made their incoming presence to the scene noticeable through blares, honks, and other sounds. Brian and Bernie disappeared into an alley, not seen by anyone as they were too focused by the burning warehouse itself, where the human-disguised demon and angel took off their ski masks and began to head back home to report to Lange on what little they accomplished in their mission.

~o~

Elsewhere in New York, Marko woke up on the floor of a darkened room where he couldn't make out his surroundings too well. But the three people who saved from Spider-Man's wrath stood out in the darkness thanks to the light hanging over his head.

"Flint Marko," the woman said, "you are a wanted fugitive responsible for numerous thieveries and one murder that has particularly attracted the attention of Spider-Man. We will offer you protection from him if you do this one simple task." The woman took out something and dropped it before Marko's knees as he tried to get up. "You must kill this woman. Her name is May Parker."

"Parker?" Marko asked as he looked up from the photo of the old woman to the female of the trio before him. "Is she related to that old guy I killed, Ben?"

"She is Ben Parker's widow, yes," the woman of the trio confirmed.

Marko looked back at the photo before returning his attention to the trio before him. "No," he said, shaking his head in refusal. "I can't do this. It was bad enough I had to kill an elderly man. I won't kill his widow. Besides, Spider-Man went after me for killing Ben Parker. How can you assure me protection from him if I kill the old lady?"

"Trust us, we'll protect you," the woman said. "Just kill May Parker, and Spider-Man won't be a problem to you any longer."

"I already said no," Marko said defiantly. "You can't really expect me to do this, can ya?"

"Oh, but we do, and you will," the woman said as one of the men in the trio turned and headed back to a corner of the room. "For you see, if you do indeed decide not to kill May Parker after all, we will kill your daughter."

"Penny?" Marko asked in shock. "You wouldn't!"

"Oh, but we can do so much more to her than merely kill her," the man who didn't leave the woman's side intoned. "We'll torture her for hours on end, make her see, hear, feel, smell, touch, and taste things not meant for any of those senses of any living being; we will traumatize her without limit, rape her, etc. before we ever end her life. There is nothing we can't do to your little daughter, and unless you abide to us, we'll break her neck just as we did to your ex-wife's."

"Emma? No!" Marko pushed himself to his feet, only for the woman to kick him in the ribs and have him fall back down to the ground.

"Yes!" the man who went to the back corner of the room mocked Marko's previous remark. He then dragged in Marko's daughter, Penny, and held a knife to her throat as he held her like a human shield. "Or I can just simply watch a little red waterfall drain from her neck when I open it with this blade. That is, of course, if you don't kill that old bag in the photo there."

"Daddy! Please help me!" Penny cried out.

"Penny!" Marko cried back helplessly.

"So, what's it going to be, Marko?" the woman asked as she and the man who wasn't holding Penny folded their arms before him.

Marko stared at them for a short while before drooping his head to the floor in a defeated sigh, then looking back up at the trio who ended his ex-wife's life, and threatened his daughter's. "All right," he said as he picked up the photo. "I'll do it."

"Good," the woman intoned as the man who held Penny tossed the knife over into Marko's hand, the handle landing perfectly in his palm. "You'll find her tomorrow at the closest grocery store to Queens. We'll make sure no one stops you as you take her outback and use that knife to do what Majes over here would've done to Penny had you refused."

"Thanks," Marko said with contempt, making the trio know he hated them more than ever now.

~o~

Meanwhile, Peter returned back in the apartment building, but before he could go into his own apartment, the door behind him leading into Brian and Bernie's apartment opened up.

"Peter," Brian's voice came, "where the hell have you been?"

"Out," he said as he began unlocking the door.

"Well, you know, we had a mission, and you didn't even answer your cellphone," Brian said.

"So how'd the mission go then?" Peter asked as he opened the door.

"We were supposed to find Niske, Botya, and Majes somewhere in the Bronx," Brian said. At that, Peter stopped and turned around to hear what else the human-disguised demon would tell him. Brian didn't seem unfazed by Peter's sudden change of attitude as he continued with, "The last warehouse we visited had a bomb in it that Bernie and I barely escaped from. Which means that they were at least there and were most likely using it as a hideout. What about you, did you happen to see them?" Brian asked that last part sarcastically, not believing that was so.

"Actually, I did," Peter said in a borderline-aggressive manner. "And they took away the man who killed my uncle." With that he turned back around, walked into his apartment, and slammed the door in a dumbfound Brian's face.

As soon as Peter was inside, his apartment phone rang. He moved to pick it up. "Hello?" he asked.

"Don't ask who this is," a deep, booming voice said. Peter knew it was one of those voices used to disguise what a person really sounded like. "All you need to know is that I know where and when you can find Flint Marko."

"I'm listening," Peter said without hesitation.

~o~

The next day, as May Parker was shopping for some milk and other groceries, where, curiously, no one else was around her, she was suddenly surprised when a man came from around an aisle slightly behind her and off to the side, and he held a knife to her neck from as he came in right behind her. She almost screamed, but it turned into a weak gasp of fear, and she looked up at all the security cameras in the area to find them all pointed away, as if they had been intentionally set that way.

"C'mon, lady," the man said nervously in her ear. "You're coming with me."

With that, the man dragged her all the way to the rear exit of the grocery store. Along the way, none of the cameras were ever pointed in their way, nor was there anyone else to witness them, even though May knew there were people in the store right now. It was as if people were somehow being blocked from witnessing this man taking her with him.

"Why are you doing this?" May asked.

"Believe me, lady, if you were in my position, you'd understand," the man said.

Not another word was spoken between them before they made it to the back exit, and once they were out in the store's back alley, where no one could see them, the man shoved May to the ground, splashing up water as she went.

The old woman turned on her back and began to crawl away from the man with the knife in his hand. She made it all the way to the back wall, where she was forced to stop, and saw an exit to the alley off to her right. But even if she did make a run for it, doubtless would the man be able to catch her in time and kill her instantly before anyone knew what would happen to her. Even so, it was strange that no one was even walking at the entrance to the alley in order to view the scene.

"Wh-who are you?" May asked the man.

"My name is Flint Marko," the man introduced himself. "And I'm the man who has no choice but to kill you, right here, right now."

"But why?" May asked.

"My daughter is in trouble," he said. "The people who have her are going to kill if I don't end her life. I'm sorry. I really am." For some reason, to May, it seemed like he was apologizing for even more than what he was about to do to her.

Marko advanced on her, and raised the blade to cut her down. But before the knife could descend upon her, his weapon hand was stopped by a web-line to the wrist. Marko turned his head back around to find Spider-Man on the ledge of the rooftop, holding that web-line. He then yanked the line to force Marko back, accidentally dropping the knife right through a hole of a nearby sewer grate.

Spider-Man then flipped off the ledge and descended for Marko. The crook dodged to his right in order to avoid a curb-stomp from the vigilante, but even as Spider-Man landed, he didn't lose any momentum in his movements as he swerved around and delivered a solid roundhouse-kick right across Marko's head. The thug dropped to the ground, but before he could even make it to his knees, Spider-Man smacked his head straight into the ground. He did this two more times before May stopped him.

"Spider-Man, that's enough!" May exclaimed. "You're going to kill him!"

"That's the idea," he said darkly. "And considering that this is the same man who killed your husband, you should be thanking me."

Instead of doing what Spider-Man just suggested, May was taken aback, and asked, "How do you know about Ben?"

Spider-Man was hesitant in his response, but he came with answering, "I know your nephew, Peter. You may know that he takes pictures of me for the _Daily Bugle_. He told me quite a bit you and your late husband, and how the both of you raised him like you were his parents."

"Oh," May said. "Well, if Peter told you about me, then he must've also told you that I don't condone this type of violence on anyone, even if he did kill my husband."

Spider-Man got to his feet and asked, "Why?"

"Because he has enough problems as it is," May answered for Marko.

"Oh, yeah, he has," a voice came from the rooftop that Spider-Man just came from. The vigilante and May turned, and found a man, Majes, standing there with a frightened little girl in his grasp. "But since he failed to end your life, May Parker, just as he did your husband's, I shall end the life of his daughter, as promised." And with that, he took out a knife and slit the girl`s throat.

"No!" Spider-Man and May both screamed as Majes dropped the girl's body to the ground. Spider-Man swung in to catch her, but as expected, he was too late. She was already dead. He and May looked back up, and found that Majes was already gone.

Marko woke up not too long after, and he immediately went to his daughter's corpse, crying in grief. Spider-Man swung away, and May would give a statement as the police would take a defeated Marko away.

As Spider-Man traveled back to his apartment, he knew that he had no grudge against Marko anymore; the man had already suffered enough, so death wouldn't mean anything to Peter Parker anyway.

And even Peter had to admit; no one should have to suffer like that.

~o~

In Niske, Botya, and Majes's new hideout, they stood before Ugly Kid's spectral form.

"The fear, anger, and sadness from Marko was delicious as it could be," the Antichrist intoned. "It still holds, however, that you three failed to see to it that Parker's rage and hatred for Marko didn't bloom as it should. Nevertheless, the compensation from Marko's pain has been so great, I would just as well reward all three of you–if I was such a generous person, which I'm not, obviously."

"What about the failure to kill Brian and that idiot angel counterpart of his?" Niske asked.

"To be honest with you, I never actually expected that bomb to go off in time to kill those two," Ugly Kid said. "I just did it for two reasons. One, there were just way too many reports thanks to the angels' spies of where you guys were hiding out. Two, I needed to make sure Brian and Bernie didn't screw things up when it came to the whole Marko business. Alas with that, though, I guess that was kind of my fault, but mostly your fault, in my consideration to get Marko to kill May Parker, have you guys kill his daughter anyway before his eyes, and then have Spider-Man kill him. But, oh, well, it's what happens when you gamble like that, and even someone such as I doesn't always have that kind of luck; but we all gamble in our own ways, don`t we? Anyway, it'll be all the more delicious for me when the time comes when Brian and Bernie really will die in the end."

"So what was the point of the bomb then, master?" Botya asked.

"Oh, that was the third reason I forgot to mention. That was because I like explosions," Ugly Kid said simply. "You know how much they remind of home. Don't explosions remind you fellas of home?"

"They do," the three demons all said with a nod.

"Of course they do," Ugly Kid said. "But anyway, we're not here to talk about explosions, as beautiful as they are. I'm tellin' ya, boys–and girl–just as I've already told all the other demons not currently in my presence this one thing: all hell's gonna break loose real soon. Y'all know what that means, do ya?"

Niske, Botya, and Majes all nodded wordlessly.

"But... before that happens, there're few things we still gotta do. Pieces still need to be moved around on the proverbial chessboard, all to set up for one big checkmate against the Big Man in the Sky Himself. And when that checkmate happens, I shall be the new God. No one will stand in my way. The gambles we take from hereon out will all count. But one man continues to stands in my way, and unless we take him out first in every way imaginable, I will be defeated. However, although my recent plan to harbor his own darkness has failed, what will follow will see to it that what has failed will succeed in a different way. Because I am Ugly Kid, the Antichrist, and the future ruler of all the Multiverse."


	6. Chapter 6

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds

Episode 6: Evil's Ugliness: Part 1

In the New York City Airport at night, several passengers got off of Flight 66 in a hurry and with looks of fear on their faces. Those who disembarked from other flights, or those waiting for their own flights, looked at the former passengers of Flight 66 in wonderment.

That was before the most hideous adolescent that anyone had ever seen was among the last passengers to disembark from Flight 66. Wearing a blood-red suit, he had horrible, wrinkled, pale white skin that showed his arteries and veins; sharp, wooden teeth at odd, crooked angles in his mouth; and blood-red eyes that were much darker than his suit. With this hideous adolescent was a posse of darkly dressed individuals who looked unremarkable, unlike the ugly teenager they were with.

Everyone was staring unabashedly at the grotesque kid, and the sounds of infants and toddlers crying from wherever the teenager and his posse went was always in the background. Otherwise, things went relatively uneventful as the adolescent and his group checked through luggage and airport security. The guards were thrown off by the teenager's appearance, but as one of them checked all of their passports and saw that everything was in order, he let them pass.

The hideous teenager's name on his passport said **RICHARD ILLGUE**.

Near the exit of the airport, Richard Illgue and his posse met up with a limo driver who held up a sign saying the ugly teenager's name. The driver led the group outside and to his limo, where he opened several of the limo's doors, and Illgue and his posse went into the car through the various entrances.

Once they were all inside, the driver closed all of the doors and then walked all the way around the limo to get into the driver's seat. After he sat in, he started the car and began driving without asking where Illgue or any other member of his group wanted to go to.

Because the driver already knew where Illgue wanted to go. For the driver was a demon from Hell who owed his allegiances to the Antichrist, and Illgue was really Ugly Kid, the son of the Devil–his pseudonym of Richard Illgue was the final result of spelling "Ugly Kid" backwards; you would first get Dik Ylgu, then Dick Ylgu, then Richard Ylgu, and finally, Richard Illgue.

Back in the airport, a few minutes after "Richard Illgue" left in the limo, the eyes of everyone who saw Ugly Kid began bleeding. They all started to scream in agony before their eyes burst into blood, and they fell to the floor, rolling around in screeching agony and in pools of their own blood that continued to leak out from their empty eye sockets. Those now getting off from their arriving flights all walked into a bloodbath that literally painted the airport red everywhere. The same was happening to the passengers now getting on Flight 66 and those passengers of other flights who had looked upon the visage of Ugly Kid. Even the pilots of Flight 66 were now dead, but since their passengers shared the same fate, no one aboard that plane ever cared that their flight wouldn't take them anywhere.

All of this was merely the beginning of the end.

~o~

Later that evening, in Peter's apartment, he was watching the news, and he was horrified to see all the blood and the eyeless dead bodies that littered the New York City Airport. Then his phone rang, causing him to turn off the TV before the report could say what could possibly have caused all those deaths, and he answered the call. "Hello?"

"Peter, it's me, Aunt May," the kindly old voice replied at the other end of the line.

"Oh, hey, Aunt May, what's up?"

"Can you come over right now, Peter?" Her voice sounded rather abrupt and cut, and not the warm and loving voice he came to know. Even whenever she sounded angry to him, she didn't sound this... unusual. "Please?" She said that after a silent moment between them.

In that silent moment, Peter had tried to assess what was going on with May. "Sure, Aunt May, but what is it?"

"Y-you'll see when you come over," May replied. "Goodbye, Peter." With that, she hung up the phone.

Less than thirty seconds later, Peter was out the door to his apartment and heading downstairs so that he could head over to Aunt May's.

~o~

Meanwhile, Brian and Bernie were just relaxing in their apartment, with Brian pretending he was reading _Hamlet_ when he was really looking at a _Playboy_ he hid in one of Shakespeare's greatest plays. Bernie, meanwhile, despite his angelic background, pretended he was reading _The Cat in the Hat_ when he was looking at pictures from the 1800s where women showed their ankles like they showed the rest of their body. Like Brian, he was getting turned on by it. They both sat way apart from each other; Brian sitting at the kitchen table whilst Bernie sat on the couch.

Yet, even in his libido, Bernie still somehow had a clear enough mind to snap out of those old photos and look over to Brian and asked, "Hey, Brian, why do you think Niske, Botya, Majes, or any other of Ugly Kid's demons just come over here and kill us?"

Brian closed the book, looked over to Bernie, and said, "What do you mean? They don't know where we live."

"Oh, yeah, well, what about when Niske, Botya, and Majes were over in Peter's apartment with that crazy chick Christina?" Bernie asked. "Surely, they must've figured we came out of this apartment right before we all went into that Mexican standoff. I mean, c'mon, both doors were left open, so either of those three demons could've seen that our door was open, we came out of that apartment, and they'd remember it so they could come over here and kill us. And even if they were too stressed and distracted by all that happened when we got in there, you'd think they'd probably return, because how else could we just be in this apartment just as they were raiding Peter's apartment?"

"Huh," Brian said. "You know, that's actually a very good point you bring up there, Bernie."

"Yeah, I know," Bernie said with a nod of his head. "Do you think there maybe something else going on, like Ugly Kid is preparing for something really big that he hasn't done before? Like, something that he's been planning for years, if not all these centuries he's been on this planet?"

"Well, that is indeed something that's been pretty damn scary to think about, I'll admit," Brian admitted. "Like everything he's done all this time was just a distraction while he's really been planning something else entirely. But, even if that is so, we don't have any substantial evidence to back that claim up for Lange or any of the others, now do we, Bernie?"

Bernie sighed. "No, we don't. But another thing that boggles is why Jesus doesn't just come back to this universe on this planet so that He can just deal with Ugly Kid Himself in like a day rather than have us try to look for the Antichrist for all these centuries with no results."

"Bernie, you know that Jesus is working with His Father in order to right the wrongs throughout the Multiverse caused by the imbalance that Ugly Kid has wrought upon thanks to what he did in Hell," Brian reminded his angelic counterpart. "I did forget to mention that to Peter, but, oh, what the hell, he's already on our side in fighting the Antichrist. So is there anything else that boggles you mind, Bernie?"

"Yeah, just one," Bernie replied.

"Shoot."

Bernie raised any eyebrow. "I don't have a gun. And what do I shoot if I did have one?"

"No, I meant tell me what else boggles your mind, Bernie," Brian explained himself.

"Oh," Bernie said. "Well, it's just that... why do some of us angels and demons have these names, like you and I, for example, that're pretty much the same as what every other North American names their kids, and then there're Memmon, Niske, Botya, Majes, Jesus, etc. who all have these weird names. I mean, what's up with that?"

Brian raised an eyebrow this time. "So you're just wondering this now?"

"Well, yeah, why not?"

Brian sighed. "You know what boggles my mind about this whole hunt for Ugly Kid?"

"Well, you didn't answer my question of 'why not' regarding why you asked me about why I was just wondering why some of us have regular North American names and some of us have weird names, but go on."

"Well, it's just..." Brian trailed off so he could regard Bernie. "You know, this whole thing with you flip-flopping between being an intellectual to rival my wits and just being an idiot confuses the hell out of me, Bernie. But that's not what boggles my mind, I mean I've gotten used to you by now, I just wanted to point that to you."

"Well, why now?"

"Why not?"

"Douché," Bernie replied.

"The term is touché, Bernie," Brian corrected his angelic counterpart. "But anyway, here's what boggles my mind–why is Peter going to be such a useful tool to us in our centuries-long hunt for the Antichrist? I mean, we've been hunting Ugly Kid down for hundreds of years, and then all of a sudden, Uatu appears before Lange and only just tells her that this superhero, who retired like months earlier, is going to be useful to us? Geez, you'd think Uatu would've told us Peter would be useful while he was actively being a superhero. But that's not what really bothers me. What really bothers me about Peter's whole involvement in this is that he isn't even really an angel or a demon! He's a human! A superhuman, at that, but still, he's got no concept of the supernatural, so how the hell would he really be any real help to us once we're really confronted by Ugly Kid? I mean, Niske, Botya, and Majes are nothing compared to the power of the Antichrist, no matter how much his powers are reduced in any of the mortal realms."

"Well, hey, Brian, don't forget we're no more powerful," Bernie said. "In fact, Peter's actually stronger, faster, and more agile than us, and even has superpowers, whereas we only have the ability to not age. And don't you remember that he fought and killed Shikata in single combat?"

"Oh, yeah, I forgot about Shikata," Brian said. "Hey, do you think we should probably tell Peter of who she really was?"

"Does it even matter anymore?" Bernie retorted.

"Another good point there," Brian replied.

Suddenly, their computer beeped, and they went straight over to respond to the call that would most undoubtedly come from Lange.

When the woman appeared on the screen, the first thing she said was, "Brian, Bernie, bringing Mr. Parker into this will be unnecessary this time; considering how he decided to seek revenge on Flint Marko a week ago, I have considered to leave him out of some missions I find he doesn't need to necessarily know about, such as this one."

"Okay then," Brian said. "So what's our mission?"

"Your mission will be the mission of every angel throughout the continent," Lange explained, "as well as those who are flying in to New York from elsewhere around the planet."

Both Brian and Bernie's eyes widened. "You don't mean..." Brian trailed off as he tried to absorb the implications of what was going to happen just before Lange herself said it.

"Yes, I do," Lange said. "The Antichrist is here, in Manhattan–and it is time to kill him."

"But wait," Bernie said, "shouldn't Peter be in on this? After all, Uatu did say–"

"I know what Uatu said, Bernie," Lange interrupted. "However, the reason that I find that Mr. Parker will not have to be informed of this is because at this point, he should already be heading in the Antichrist's destination."

"What do you mean?" Brian asked.

"When the Antichrist came out of the New York City Airport earlier today," Lange began explaining, "and subsequently left a trail of dead bodies in his wake, one of our spies who neither the Antichrist or any of his demons had seen discreetly threw a tracking beacon behind the limo that Memmon took. We tracked him down, and he has ended up in the residence of Mrs. May Parker."

"That's Peter aunt!" Bernie pointed out.

"That is correct," Lange stated. "And that leaves almost no doubt that he will be using May Parker as bait to lead her nephew into a trap. When Mr. Parker gets there, and the Antichrist springs his trap, we will be ready as we arrive, spring our own trap, and finally be done with Memmon as the balance between good and evil will be restored in the aftermath. You two will rendezvous with myself and the rest of the angels currently in New York at Forest Hills, Queens, in half an hour. And remember, do not tell Mr. Parker, even if you want to. Lange out."

~o~

Less than half an hour later, the cab Peter took dropped him off in front of Aunt May's house. He paid for the ride that took him from his apartment, and as soon as he was out and the back passenger door was closed, the taxi took off as Peter approached the front door. He knocked on it a few times, and the door opened up into a darkened house.

Suspicious, even though his spider-sense wasn't tingling, he walked inside, but didn't even see Aunt May opening the door even with the limited vision provided thanks to the darkness.

"Aunt May? Hello?" Peter called out.

Suddenly, his spider-sense came alive just as the lights immediately flashed on, and in the split second that followed before he went into combat mode, he saw about ten or so people surrounding him in a circle. They charged him when that second was over, and he barely had time to flip back. But the circle of people didn't ram into each other, and one of them turned around to kick Peter, who made his landing, in the torso, sending him flying back into the door behind him.

He crashed against it, and fell to the floor beneath him. He looked up, but the next thing he saw was a boot in the face that caused a flash of white. When it cleared, he found himself grabbed by the back collar of his shirt and thrown right back into the circle on his front. He turned on his back, and kicked one of the people down to the ground before performing a breakdance-like maneuver that knocked the rest of them down on their backs. When they were all down, he flipped to his feet, and met the few people who had the time to get back up and charge him. Each of them was a relatively formidable combatants against Peter's abilities, to whom he defeated out of desperation in each brief duel before he had to face the next one. Eventually, however, even his own strength and agility began to wane under the onslaught of the attackers until one of them hit him behind the head and knocked him prone to the floor once more.

Peter then looked up, and saw the half of the circle formed by the attackers in front of him part before their hideous leader came in, laughing evilly under his breath as he looked down at the defeated combatant now at his feet.

It was Ugly Kid, Peter recognized.

"Hello, Peter Parker," Ugly Kid said, "or should I call you Spider-Man?"

"You can call me whatever the hell you want," Peter said as he stood up to his feet. "Where is my Aunt May?"

"Bring her in," Ugly Kid called out back.

Then May was half-dragged in as Majes held her by the arm, from which she tried vainly to struggle out of, and behind them were Niske and Botya. May's struggle stopped once she finally looked ahead and called out, "Peter!"

"Aunt May!" Peter called back.

"What's going on here?" May asked in a scared tone.

"Look, everything's going to be all right, Aunt May," Peter lied, trying futilely to calm his aunt down.

"Now that's even more to the contrary than Britney Spears having a marriage that lasts for more than a few years," Ugly Kid replied with a snort.

"What do you want?" Peter asked the Antichrist.

"Hasn't Brian already told you that?" Ugly Kid retorted. "I want to be ruler over all things that exist, Peter. But for now, what I want is your soul."

Peter made a wry face. "Coming from someone like you, why am I not surprised?"

"Yes, I'll admit, it's quite a cliché," Ugly Kid said. "But nevertheless, I think you know what's gonna happen if you disagree to my... offer." That statement was punctuated when Majes forced Aunt May to her knees and then put a knife to her throat.

"Peter!" May cried out.

Peter looked in fear at what might happen to his aunt, and then looked back to the Antichrist as Ugly Kid asked, "So what's it gonna be, Peter? I sure as my home–you know, Hell–you get it? Sure as hell? Eh, anyway, I sure know you're not gonna sacrifice your aunt for yourself. Brian's told me you're not that kind of a selfish guy."

"Wait, what was that you said about Brian?" Peter asked with widened eyes.

"Oh, you mean what Brian informed me, because he's a spy of mine?" Ugly Kid retorted. "Yeah, throughout these years, he's been secretly giving me information about the actions of the angels in their attempts to take me out."

"Brian? A traitor?" Peter asked in shock.

"What, a demon from Hell, who claims to be the only remaining loyalist to the Devil to escape my wrath?" Ugly Kid retorted again. With sarcasm, he added, "Oh, what a shock that he would lie so that he'd throw you and the angels off my trail! I mean, that's worthy of an M. Night Shamalyan movie, don't you think?"

"But that can't be true even if he was really working for you!" Peter exclaimed. "Bernie's been making sure he can't do anything stupid, as much of an idiot as he is."

"There are other ways that neither Bernie or any of the other angels don't know about for Brian to communicate what knowledge he harvests from those God-loving idiots," Ugly Kid said. "But that's all irrelevant now, as my plans are going to such fruition that there's no way the angels could stop me. Once I inform Brian that it's time to get out, he'll get out, and he'll serve me just as the demons you see around you serve me."

As Peter absorbed what Ugly Kid just told him about Brian's treachery, May asked, "Peter! What's he talking about? What's going to happen to us?"

Ugly Kid turned from Peter, trusting his demons to stop him in case he tried to do anything stupid, and the Antichrist said to May, "Oh, nothing will happen to you, my dear–unless, of course, your nephew refuses to give up his very essence to me; otherwise, I'll kill you, and your soul shall spend the rest of eternity in the burning fires of Hell, never to see your late husband in Heaven." He said that last part in a matter-of-fact manner, as if he were simply ordering out from McDonald's or something like that.

"And how can I trust you to keep your promise, when what would most likely happen, from what I know of you, is that you'll just take her soul after you take mine?" Peter asked, forcing the Antichrist to turn back and face him.

"Oh, really, Peter, why would you distrust me so?" Ugly Kid asked. "I mean, just because I'm the primary incarnation of evil and all its mortal forms, such as deceit, and have been portrayed as such in countless Hollywood movies and ancient legends, like Christianity, why would you think I'd break such a promise?" He said that last part in a mock-innocent tone.

"I guess that means I really have no choice in this matter, now do I you?" Peter asked rhetorically.

"No, you really don't," Ugly Kid replied.

"Well, if that's the case then," Peter said, "then bring it on." He signalled for Ugly Kid to fight him.

"Well, if you just wanna make this harder on yourself... Oh, wait, I forgot!" Ugly Kid exclaimed. Then he looked at a watch that didn't happen to be on his wrist. "The angels should be invading in about five, four, three, two, one."

And just as Ugly Kid expected, the angels invaded Aunt May's house from all sides. Both the front and back doors were busted down, along with numerous windows and even a few sections of wall here and there. All of them were armed with guns, so immediately, the human-disguised demons were on the action as they quickly took out their guns and began shooting down numerous angels before the latter ever had the chance of defending themselves.

After a few seconds, however, the surviving angels managed to find cover wherever they could, or otherwise moved out of the way of the demons' gunfire, and found new positions to begin an even firefight. New demons entered through all of the entrances made by the angels as backup; since the Antichrist expected this, it seemed logical that he would have demons on standby hidden elsewhere in the neighborhood ready to spring into action the moment the angels attacked.

Several angels tried to shoot down Ugly Kid with their Heaven guns, but those opportunists were either taken down quickly by nearby demons who knew what their opponents would do, or they were easily killed by Ugly Kid himself, who got in close whilst simultaneously avoiding gunfire and then broke their necks with his own bare hands. But despite his victories against these angels, Ugly Kid knew that he wouldn't last, even with a weapon. So, as nearby demons began covering for him, he relieved a busied Majes–who was busy trying to shoot down other angels without hitting any of his fellow demons–of holding a distressed May Parker by her arm. Then the Antichrist hurried out the backdoor, now devoid of any angelic threats to Ugly Kid's life, so that the son of the Devil could make his escape.

Meanwhile, as the violence busted out in the house, Peter took cover right behind the dining room, where he defeated all six demons there with single blows before they ever had the chance of pulling their guns on him. The opponents they were battling put bullets in them, and then moved on elsewhere to see what other demons they could kill in the house. Brian and Bernie then rushed in behind Peter from around the corner he came from, taking cover from the larger gunfight going around elsewhere in the house, and Peter turned to them as they rushed up to him.

Once the two of them got to him, Brian procured another Heaven gun and made a gesture to give the weapon to Peter. But the latter then punched him out, and as the human-disguised demon fell unconscious, Peter grabbed the Heaven gun out of midair and aimed it down on Brian's unconscious form.

"Wait!" Bernie cried as he deflected Peter's aim away from Brian's unconscious body. "What're you doing?"

"Brian was a traitor to us all along," Peter explained quickly. "He'd been working for Ugly Kid since day one."

"How do you know that?" Bernie asked as Lange and a few other demons came in from around the corner so they could take cover from the remaining demons.

"Because Ugly Kid told me this," Peter said, and then aimed the weapon down on Brian's form again.

"Hold on!" Bernie stopped Peter. "If that's so, then we need to keep him alive long enough to at least find out what information he gave to Ugly Kid and how." Part of Bernie's tone made it sound like it was a logical conclusion, despite his idiocy, while the other side of Bernie's tone felt like he was sparing Brian's life as a friend.

"Fine," Peter said. "But make sure he doesn't go anywhere."

"Mr. Parker!" Lange called amidst the firefight against the demons from around the corner. "The Antichrist is getting away with your aunt! We can't get past the demons without getting killed! Only you can do so and finally kill Ugly Kid with your Heaven gun!"

"All right!" he called back as he quickly stripped out of his civilian clothes and down into his Spider-Man costume. He then pulled out his mask and said to Bernie, "Also, make sure that you take my clothes when this is all over."

"Okay," Bernie replied as Spider-Man then webbed his Heaven gun on his thigh before jumping up and swung around the corner. He soared above the gunfire and the demons below him were too stressed in taking down their angelic opponents that the superhero was even able to knock out a few with single kicks along the way before he let go of the web-line and allowed his body to fly straight out the backdoor.

There, he saw yet another gunfight going on in Aunt May's backyard between the angels and demons, and saw a limo begin to drive off. Spider-Man knew that there would be no way for a limo to be in this neighborhood, so it had to belong to Ugly Kid. He then jumped over some incoming bullets, both from intended shots by demons and stray bullets from both sides of the firefight, and Spider-Man then swung after the limo.

~o~

Brian woke up as the gunfight in May Parker's house continued, and he looked around, finding that his own Heaven gun was gone. He then looked in the direction where Bernie, Lange, and the human-disguised angels with them were shooting off bullets in the direction of demons from around the corner of the cover they hid behind. Brian noticed that Bernie had two guns rather than just the required one.

Brian then jumped to his feet and rushed over to Bernie, whose back was turned to him in his concentration to kill demons with both guns. "Hey, Bernie, why do you have my–"

But before Brian could finish the question, Bernie stopped shooting for five seconds and then elbowed Brian in the face, knocking him out again.

~o~

Inside the limo that Spider-Man was chasing after, May Parker struggled against Ugly Kid's grip on both her wrists in her attempt to escape his clutches. In her vain attempt to escape, she screamed in complete fear as she looked at his horrible face, his flicking lizard-like tongue, and his evil laugh. Even in her hysteria, she knew that the Antichrist was merely toying with her before he would grow tired of it and just end this struggle.

And surely, that was what had happened as Ugly Kid pushed back on her wrists, simultaneously releasing them, and the old woman's head slammed back into the window behind her. It wasn't enough to crack it, but it certainly was enough to knock her out cold.

Outside the driving car, Spider-Man continued to swing, but he couldn't get into any good positions to land on its roof and deal with Ugly Kid, especially since the driver was veering the car around in various maneuvers meant to throw the superhero off. But such field of movement gradually narrowed once he began entering the city limits and heavier traffic came about. From keeping from crashing into cars that drove alongside the speeding limo, the driver substituted maneuverability for more speed, which made it more difficult for Spider-Man to catch up.

Even as the limo began running through red lights and just barely avoiding getting hit from either side by other driving cars, it was quite a while before a cop car joined in on the chase to stop the limo from endangering itself and other drivers and pedestrians in the city. And it wasn't long before a few other cop cars joined in on the chase, and a few opportunistic cops in a couple of the cars leaned slightly out of their windows to take some potshots at Spider-Man. But thanks to the superhero's spider-sense, speed, and agility, he was able to avoid all of the bullets from even grazing him whilst keeping up with the limo containing the Antichrist and Aunt May.

~o~

Just as the cops joined in on the chase between Spider-Man and Ugly Kid, various other units began rushing to May Parker's house, thanks to some calls from the neighbors, in order to deal with the now-dying firefight between the remaining angels and demons there. Led by Officer Barr, with fellow Officer Jeanne DeWolffe at his side, they and their colleagues rushed into all of the entrances of the house made by the angels that invaded. Once they were inside, the firefight's flame had been fuelled with a third party of members joining in on the violence.

But that rise in violence gradually died down again when the surviving angels and demons found that they had all run out of bullets, so they rushed to confront each other and the cops. Half of each of them were successful in disarming and defeating their new cop opponents in their own ways; the angels in simply knocking the officers unconscious, whilst the demons simply killed them with fatal blows or breaks of necks. The other half of each human-disguised party were unsuccessful in dealing with their freshly armed foes and were gunned down for their trouble.

Fortunately for them, neither Bernie nor Lange were among the latter party, and they dealt with the various demon and cop opponents that came their way. Bernie himself managed to deal with Officer Barr fairly easily as he deflected the shot that the cop took on him with a simple arm sweep to Barr's forearm before grabbing his weapon wrist and twisting it hard so that he dropped his weapon. Bernie then finished Barr off by knocking him unconscious with the cop's own baton before he rushed to start a one-on-two fistfight against Botya and Majes all by himself.

As for Lange, she managed to similarly disarm DeWolffe, but got into a fistfight against the trained officer that lasted a good ten seconds before she knocked her out with a single roundhouse-kick to the head. Then Lange turned and was kicked in the midriff by Niske, which started their own fight.

Meanwhile, as Bernie, Lange, and the other angels continued to combat the other demons and cops in a three-way battle, Brian woke up again. He gradually came up to his feet as he nursed the nose that was hit twice with both of his hands, and from whom the pain could be contributed thanks to Peter and Bernie for one hit each. "God, I hope I don't go through another hit like that again," he muttered under his cupped breath, even as the battle raged around him.

"Freeze!" Brian heard a harsh voice yell out behind him.

Instinctively, and without his own gun, Brian lifted up both his hands, and the cop who called that out knocked him by the nose with the butt of his own gun so that he could go back to do his own part in the battle.

~o~

As the chase in Downtown Manhattan continued, Ugly Kid rolled down a side window, took out a briefcase full of grenades from beneath his seat, pulled off one trigger, and threw it outside towards Spider-Man. The superhero veered out of the way in mid-swing, but unfortunately for him and the victims of the resulting blast, the grenade exploded right against the windshield of the police cruiser that ended up in the automated weapon's path and killed both cops in the car. The vehicle then veered off right onto the sidewalk and, as it was made into a cliché in various other cop movies, it plowed right through a fruit stand.

The same happened to all of the other cop cars currently in the chase, although after their drivers and passengers died, they would crash into various other objects, such as the walls of buildings, fire hydrants, and even people and sometimes pets that they took on walks. Spider-Man knew that a lot of people would be missing spouses and relatives after today, but he had to save Aunt May and kill Ugly Kid, if not for the sake of the Multiverse or the angels, then at least to remove the Antichrist as a threat all on his own.

Eventually, all of the cop cars were out of pursuit with all of their drivers and passengers dead, along with more than a dozen other people and half that number of dogs who ended up killed in the resulting crashes of a few of those cruisers. And just in time, Ugly Kid thought, since he had just run out of grenades; it wouldn't have mattered anyway, since he had a few other briefcases elsewhere in the limo that contained various firearms he could have continued to use against Spider-Man and the police.

But then, the limo was coming up on a city bus, and the driver veered his vehicle out of the way so that it swung to its side as it screeched to a stop, avoiding a crash. However, the open window at the back of the long car from which the Antichrist used the grenades against the police cruisers had Ugly Kid become a target of opportunity for Spider-Man as the latter took out his Heaven gun from the makeshift web-pouch on his thigh.

He immediately took aim and fired.

But the shot went wild and hit the hull of the passing city bus as the limo sped up, having Ugly Kid avoid death once again.

With the chase going on again, Spider-Man eventually started catching up to the limo once more. The driver, seeing in his rearview mirror how the antagonistic superhero was catching up, tried to veer out of the way of two relatively slowly-moving cars that were driving in the same direction ahead of him. But once the human-disguised demon driver had the limo end up in the opposite lane, it met on with another car in a head-on collision that spun the limo right onto the sidewalk on its side.

Ugly Kid was nearly thrown out of the limo through the open window as the car spun around so much faster than a merry-go-round. Once the vehicle was on the sidewalk, however, its spinning stopped once its rear end had ended up in a tilting direction in the subway entrance behind it.

Meanwhile, in the driver's area of the limo, the driver of the car that the limo crashed into wasn't wearing his seatbelt, so he flew through his own windshield and the human-disguised demon's windshield just before the limo went into its spin. Once the spin stopped, both drivers ended up in a brief struggle from which Ugly Kid's driver tried to shoot the other driver with a handgun in the compartment at the side of his door. But the opposing driver took out a switchblade from his pocket, and the shot killed the knife-wielding driver just as the blade killed the demon driver with a simple thrust to the neck.

With both drivers dead, the human-disguised demon driver accidentally set the limo into reverse, and the car drove downstairs into the subway. Spider-Man followed down in a simple swing. Meanwhile, just as the limo ended up at the bottom of the stairs, Ugly Kid jumped out through the open window, leaving May Parker behind as he rolled across the ground. He knocked the feet out of six people in his roll before he jumped up, and ran toward another set of stairs.

Spider-Man ended up at the bottom of the subway, and saw both the departing Antichrist and the limo, which he saw through the shattered windshield his unconscious Aunt May at the back of the car, as the vehicle drove back to the tracks. And just as that was happening, a subway train was arriving, ready to hit the car once the car was on the tracks; and it'll kill Aunt May.

Making a split-second decision, Spider-Man decided to save May, and he swung over to the car as it was meters from the tracks now. He slipped in through the open window, collected Aunt May, and swung out just as the car tilted back into the tracks. Spider-Man, with the unconscious old lady in his arm, landed several meters away, and looked back as the train plowed right into the car before it eventually stopped in order to allow its current passengers off and let new passengers on.

After Spider-Man set the unconscious May down, he didn't mind the onlookers observing him and his aunt as he looked around, finding that, as he was saving May, Ugly Kid had gotten away.

~o~

Back at May's house, the three-way battle between the remaining angels, demons, and cops concluded, as the survivors of the former two parties decided to retreat via the vehicles they arrived in. All of the cops tried to stop them, and some of them succeeded in killing a few angels and demons along the way.

But among the angels, Bernie and Lange escaped with a few of their comrades, an unconscious Brian on the former's shoulders, and they all got into the bus that Lange used to drive away from the cops. Some of the surviving angels in that bus rolled down their windows and used the guns that they "procured" from their mortal opponents (cops) to shoot out the wheels of the police cruisers so the surviving cops couldn't give chase.

Meanwhile, Niske, Botya, and Majes managed to slip out the back exit of the now-ruined house with very few of their demon comrades with them. They killed what few of the cops that came their way, and slipped into the night that fell, no one knowing where they went.

~o~

Brian woke up once again in a well-lit, spotless, silver-lined cell in the angels' secret headquarters beneath New York. He was tied up with his wrists and ankles bound behind him as he was seated in a wooden chair. In the cell with him was the interrogation specialist angel, the Russian-born Ivan. Sorted around Ivan's belt was an assortment of torture tools meant for Ivan's line of work.

"Peter Parker has told me that you've been a spy for Ugly Kid all this time, Brian," Ivan said with contempt. "How did you manage to get past Bernie's supervision to communicate to the Antichrist? And what kind of information did you give to him?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Ivan!" Brian cried out in full sincerity. "I may betray the angels for Satan, but not his son! Never that treacherous brat!"

"Well, Parker has claimed that treacherous brat has said you have betrayed us for him," Ivan replied. "So stop lying, make this easier on yourself so that I may kill you simply, and you won't have to endure such torture."

"I'm not lying!" Brian exclaimed. "I swear on my loyalty to the Price of Darkness, Lucifer, that I haven't betrayed you!"

Ivan sighed as he took out one of the torture tools on his belt. "_Tsk, tsk_, you just can't make it easy on yourself, now can you?" he retorted as he gradually approached Brian.

Brian's subsequent screams could be heard from outside his cell.

"No, no, no! NOOOOOO!"

~o~

Meanwhile, in New York General Hospital, May Parker was lying in a coma; apparently, whatever blow she sustained to the back of her head was near-fatal. Her nephew, Peter, sat at her side, holding her head and silently praying to God–who he hoped would take some time out of balancing out the Multiverse for him–that He would make sure May will get okay; if not see to it Himself that Ugly Kid will die.

Beside him, Mary Jane touched his arm in condolence. "She'll be all right, Peter," she said. "I'm sure of it."

Before Peter could acknowledge his girlfriend's words, a doctor came in. "I'm sorry, but it's time for you guys to go," the doc said.

"All right, we were just on our way out anyway," Mary Jane said, gently pulling Peter up from his seat.

"Yeah," Peter muttered. "We were."

After Peter and Mary Jane were gone, the door to the hospital room closed behind them, the doctor approached Aunt May's bedside, as if to perform a required task as per his duties.

But then that doctor shape-shifted into a smiling Ugly Kid.

The Antichrist then bent next to May's ear, placed both his hands at each side of her head, and snakes slithered out of his wrists and into the old woman's ears. Once the snakes straightened out in her ears, she opened up her now-bright white eyes and screamed a scream that no one outside the room could hear.

To Be Continued...


	7. Chapter 7

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series: Season 2

Episode 7: Evil's Ugliness: Part Two

It had been two days since the three-way battle between the angels, demons, and cops at May Parker's house. And in the lower levels of the angels' secret base beneath New York, Ivan was still torturing Brian.

Ivan decided to take a break from administering the torture, replacing his tools around his belt, and looked down at the tied-up human-disguised demon in the wooden chair, who was bleeding and bruised in various different places around his body after two days of torture. "I'm getting real tired of your stubbornness, Brian," Ivan said. "Now just admit that you work for Ugly Kid, and I'll spare you any further agony by killing you quickly and painlessly."

"Please," Brian said weakly, his voice hoarse. "I'm telling you the truth. I don't work for Ugly Kid!"

"Well, then, I guess that means it's back to torturing you," Ivan said, preparing to take out a couple of his tools again.

All of a sudden, the ground behind Ivan exploded, and he was flung forward right to Brian's feet. The Russian angel turned on his back, and saw the demons Niske, Botya, and Majes jump out of the smoking hole. Ivan jumped up and rushed toward them in order to fight, a couple of his tools already in hand; however, once he reached them, Niske easily knocked both tools out of his hands and then walked around the angel as Botya and Majes got into a two-on-one fistfight with him.

Meanwhile, Niske approached the tied-up Brian, taking out a syringe and a bottle of black liquid. She opened up the bottle and injected the syringe into the liquid once she got to Brian.

"What're you doing here?" Brian asked angrily. "What do you want from me?"

"Why, we want to set you free, is all, Brian," Niske said with a fake smile, making it sound like she and Brian were friends, even though that time had long since passed.

Then Niske injected the syringe right into the side of Brian's neck. Strangely, he didn't feel any pain, so he made no noise when this happened. After Niske took the syringe out of his neck, capped the bottle, and put them both back into the pouches of her belt where they first came from, Brian's eyes suddenly turned red for six seconds. Once those seconds came to pass, he closed his eyes, and he looked back up at Niske with a conspiratorial smile as she began untying him.

"Thanks for the help," Brian said once he was untied and on his feet.

"You wanna have the honors?" Niske asked as she took out her gun and handed it to Brian. She then nodded her head in Ivan, Botya, and Majes's direction to indicate what she meant.

"Don't mind if I do," he replied. Then he called out to Botya and Majes, "Hey, guys, could you move out of the way?"

Without hesitation, Botya and Majes rolled off to different sides of the room, immediately breaking away from their fight with Ivan when they did, and the Russian angel turned back in shock when he saw the gun pointed in his direction.

Less than a second later, Brian fired off a silent shot–thanks to Niske for proofing the gun against sound just for this occasion–and Ivan fell back dead.

"In Soviet Russia, bullets kill you," Brian quipped in a mock-Russian accent as Botya and Majes went back to the smoking hole and pulled out a canister of gasoline each.

"Uh, bullets kill you anyway... You know what, never mind, let's go," Niske said as she gestured for Brian to give her back her gun.

After Brian complied, Botya and Majes completed dousing the room with gas, and Niske finished it off by taking out a match, striking it against her arm, starting a flame, and then threw the fiery match elsewhere in the cell. Once that fire struck a gasoline-doused surface, the whole room started to go up in flames, and all four human-disguised demons disappeared into the smoking hole. Less than a minute later, a few angels arrived to find out what all the commotion was about, and they were killed in the resulting explosion for their trouble.

~o~

The next day, Peter awoke to a knock on his door. "Coming!" he called as he crawled out of bed. He slipped on some pants and a shirt, and went over to the door. When he opened it, he kind of regretted putting on his clothes when he saw Mary Jane standing there. "Oh, hey, MJ," he said.

"Hey, Peter," she replied. "I have something to tell you."

"Oh, yeah, what is it?" Peter asked.

"Well, it's... um... it's... uh..."

But before she could say what it was, the door behind her–the door that led into Bernie's apartment (no longer shared with Brian since it turned out he was a traitor)–and Bernie said, "Peter, could you come in here for a while?"

"Uh, sure, no problem, Bernie," he said, understanding that whatever Lange had to say would have something to do with taking out Ugly Kid–the bastard who put Aunt May into a coma. Peter then looked at MJ. "Maybe next time, babe." He gave her a brief kiss on the side of her cheek and then joined Bernie in his apartment. The human-disguised angel closed the door on her before she could even ask what was going on.

With that, Mary Jane decided to leave, hoping to tell Peter "the news."

Meanwhile, in Bernie's apartment, he and Peter sat around the computer that showed Lange's face, now absent Brian's seat.

"Brian has escaped from our base," Lange said without preamble. "Last night, it went up in flames, killing a few of our fellow angels. We searched the wreckage of the cell after the fires in the room died down, and we found no traces of Brian's remains, unlike how we found the remains of our angels, including the interrogation specialist, Ivan."

"How could Brian have escaped _and_ set the room on fire when he did it?" Peter asked.

"We do not know," Lange said. "And we could not find any security videos that were supposed to have monitored the progress of Brian's torture. From the security room, they appear to be missing."

"Could an infiltration team of demons do this?" Bernie asked.

"I find it unlikely that any infiltration team of demons could pull off something like this given the high state of our security, Bernie," Lange replied. "But I do not see any other alternative–except that, as unthinkable as it is, we may have a turncoat angel in our organization."

"Well, gee, angels betraying angels, now that's unheard of," Peter said sarcastically, reflecting on the treachery of Satan and his followers to God and His followers.

"Regardless," Lange continued, ignoring Peter's comment, "the mystery of the missing security footage is an internal matter that we, down in the base, are currently looking into. In the meantime, however, something that you two will have to deal with yourselves is in finding and killing Brian as your primary target, along with Niske, Botya, and Majes as your secondary targets. Brian poses too much of a threat to our organization with what he knows and what knowledge about us that he has already given to the Antichrist. He must be stopped at all costs. Understood?"

"Yes, we do," Peter and Bernie said simultaneously with the nods of their heads.

"Good." Then there was a knock at the door. "Ah, that must me Jeff, the new third member of your trio. He will be taking Brian's place as loyal angel this time. Anyway, you know your mission. Lange out."

After Lange's visage disappeared from the screen, replaced with total blackness, Bernie answered the door.

"Hey, Bernie," the angel Jeff said.

"Hey, Jeff," Bernie said as Peter approached the two angels. "Uh, Jeff, this is Peter, I'm sure you've heard of him."

Peter and Jeff greeted each other as they shook each other's hands. "Yes, I've heard of you, Peter," Jeff said. "Miss Lange says that you're supposed to be a big help to us in defeating Ugly Kid, according to what Uatu told her."

"Well, I do my best in helping out as Spider-Man," Peter said modestly.

"Good man," Jeff acknowledged with a nod. "Now, let's not waste anymore time; we have a mission to accomplish."

And with that, after Bernie closed and locked the door to his apartment, just as Peter did likewise, the trio left the apartment building. They then went into an alley so that Peter could strip down into his Spider-Man costume, complete as he pulled his full-on mask over his head, just as Bernie and Jeff pulled over their own ski masks as their disguise. Then Spider-Man threw the two angels to one of the rooftops, where they rolled to a stop so that they didn't hurt themselves upon landing. The superhero then swung himself up right after them so that they could begin their search away from the scrutinizing eyes of the public on the streets below.

For the next ten minutes, Spider-Man joined Bernie and Jeff in leaping over short distances in between rooftops, and he helped them over greater gaps by having Jeff attach himself to the superhero's back, and then Bernie on Jeff's back, and despite the greater weight added to him, Spider-Man still swung relatively gracefully to the next rooftop.

When those ten minutes were up, Spider-Man's cellphone rang just as he, Bernie, and Jeff all landed on a rooftop after a short gap jump. The two angels stood there waiting for him to take his call, and he answered it a few seconds later. "Hello?" he said to the phone.

"Peter Parker?" the voice on the other end asked.

"Yeah, that's me. Who is this?"

"I'm Dr. Illgue, from New York General. Your aunt has just awaken from her coma, and she wants you at her bedside."

"Well, can I talk to her on the phone then?" Spider-Man asked.

"Actually, she says that she wants you here to talk to," Dr. Illgue said.

"Um, this isn't really a good time..."

"What's going on?" Bernie asked.

"Oh, hold on," Spider-Man said before covering the mouthpiece of his cell before turning his attention to Bernie and Jeff. "Uh, my aunt wants me to be with her now that she's awoken from her coma."

"Well, Peter, I don't think Lange is gonna tolerate that after that Flint Marko thing–" Bernie began to say.

"You know what, Peter, you should go and see your aunt," Jeff interrupted Bernie.

"What?" Spider-Man and Bernie asked simultaneously.

"Look, don't worry about the mission, Bernie and I can handle it ourselves," Jeff said. "We'll be fine. Your aunt needs you more than this mission does."

"You mean you'll cover for me, Jeff?" Spider-Man asked.

"Yeah, sure," Jeff shrugged.

"Well, what about you, Bernie, what do you think of this?" Spider-Man asked the other angel.

"Okay, Peter, as your friend, I'll agree with Jeff here and we'll both cover for you so that Lange won't get on your ass about it," Bernie said.

"Well, thank you both," Spider-Man said sincerely before getting back on the phone. "I'll be over there, doc." Then he closed up the phone, replaced it, and turned back to the angels. "I owe you both. Especially you, Jeff, since we just met. You really are an angel for letting me do this."

Jeff laughed. "Oh, stop it," he said playfully as he waved a hand. At this, Bernie rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Well, see ya, guys," he said. Then he turned away from them, and then he jumped and swung off the rooftop, and to the hospital.

~o~

After Spider-Man changed back into Peter Parker in a dark alley across the street from New York General Hospital, Peter walked out of that alley and into the hospital.

Once inside, he approached the counter to ask for which room May Parker was in, when suddenly, from off to the side, Dr. Illgue, the doctor who Peter and Mary Jane saw on the night May fell into the coma thanks to Ugly Kid, came over to Peter.

"Mr. Parker!" Illgue called. "If you'll just come with me, I'll take you to see your Aunt May."

"Ah, thanks, doc," Peter said as he followed Illgue to an elevator.

A few minutes later, after Peter and Illgue were on the floor that Aunt May's room would be at, the good doctor had Peter trail along straight to the room. Illgue opened the door, and Peter walked inside, horrified when he saw Aunt May begin to scream in terror and agony. He rushed over to her side, not caring why no one outside the room or passing by seemed to notice this scene, while Illgue closed the door behind him after he entered the room.

"Aunt May! What's wrong?" Peter asked as he grabbed her hand in a vain attempt to console her.

May stopped screaming and looked over at her nephew, breathing hard in fear, and she whispered, "H-he's here. And he's not going to stop, Peter!" And she went back to screaming in hysteria, as if she were seeing some horrible, nightmarish things up in the air that Peter couldn't see.

"Oh, I'll stop, all right," Peter heard an all-too familiar voice say behind him. He swung around to see Dr. Illgue say in the Antichrist's voice, "But I'm just having so much fun with her, it's kinda hard for me to quit scaring the crap out of an innocent, fragile old woman like your aunt–who could very well die from a heart attack or an unexpected stroke if I keep this up–which I will!" Illgue laughed in Ugly Kid's voice as he shape-shifted into the Antichrist himself.

Peter then quickly took out his Heaven gun and fired in Ugly Kid's direction. But when Peter fired his gun, the Antichrist wasn't even there anymore, as he had already dropped to his back on the floor and pushed himself into a forward slide in Peter's direction. Once Ugly Kid was at Peter's feet, he kicked the Heaven gun out of his hand and into the air, where the Antichrist quickly leapt to his feet, gave Peter a shove that flew him straight back over May's bed, and as he landed on the other side, Ugly Kid grabbed the Heaven gun and crushed it in his bare hands.

Peter then leapt to his feet and vaulted over the bed to Ugly Kid, but the latter jumped back, having Peter land on all fours like a cat, but his opponent kicked him up the chin and down on his back. Then Ugly Kid grabbed Peter by the neck and flung him across the room, having him soar above Aunt May's bed and crash into the wall behind him. Peter then collapsed to the floor like a ragdoll before he leapt to his feet, only to find Ugly Kid maintaining a not-too-loose grip on May's neck. She screamed even louder and in more terror when she saw the Antichrist's face.

"Leave her alone!" Peter cried out.

"Why?" Ugly Kid retorted.

"Your fight's with me, Ugly Kid, so if you want me, come and get me," Peter intoned. "But leave her out of this."

"Hmm," Ugly Kid moaned as if he were genuinely thinking about Peter's proposal. Then he abruptly said, "Nah, I'll keep her into this." And then May's screams were renewed with a different intensity. But then they gradually died down, and she went into a blissful sleep as Ugly Kid looked back up at Peter, "Unless, of course, you'll do something for me, and I'll make sure that your aunt remembers nothing of this."

Peter snorted. "Like your home, I will."

"Hey, that was my joke–Never mind. Anyway, if you want this old bag to continue living what precious few years she has on this planet without the knowledge that I could very well turn all of the Multiverse into an exact replica of Hell, you'll run a little errand for me. If you don't..." Ugly Kid then gestured his hand right next to May's ear, and out from his wrist shot a snake that entered her ear and caused her to wake up screaming again. "This'll continue to happen for another hour until she dies. Understood?"

"No dice," Peter said without hesitation.

Then he shot out one web-line from each of his hands in Ugly Kid's direction, but the Antichrist grabbed both lines and pulled him in his direction. Peter flew forward as a result and got smacked in the face by Ugly Kid, falling to his back at the Antichrist's feet. Once his vision cleared, however, Peter didn't give up as he kicked out with both feet into Ugly Kid's torso. But he grabbed him by the ankles, stopping the double blow, and then swung him around the room three times before flinging him up to the ceiling where he crashed through the spinning fan there. He landed on the other side of May's bed, and got the wind knocked out of him when Ugly Kid flipped over that bed and landed on Peter's chest.

After Ugly Kid flipped off of Peter's chest, he landed back on the other side of the bed and had the snake slither from the same wrist go into May's ear again. After her latest scream, during which Peter forced himself to his feet, Ugly Kid asked, "So, what's it gonna be, Peter?"

Seeing as how he couldn't defeat the Antichrist like this, Peter sighed in defeat and asked, "What do you want me to do?"

"I'm sure I called you away from that mission to find Brian, right?" Ugly Kid retorted.

"How do you know about that?" Peter asked.

"Oh, c'mon now," Ugly Kid said. "Surely, you know that Brian has escaped from the angels' secret base and is now in my hands, correct?"

"Yes, but–"

"But nothing," Ugly Kid interrupted. "Here's what you'll have to do for me: You get Brian into this hospital room in two hours alive, or I just outright kill your aunt and have her soul end up in Hell."

"Wait, if he's working for you, then why don't you just send for him yourself?" Peter asked.

"That there is irrelevant for you to know," Ugly Kid replied. "You get me Brian, or your aunt dies. Get it?"

"I got it, but where do I look? He could be anywhere, if he's not already in one of your own secret hideouts."

"Here's a tip: He'll be leading some of my own demons to attack the infrastructure in this city that covers up the angels' base in several minutes tops."

"And what and where is this infrastructure that covers the angels' base, since I've never been there myself?" Peter asked.

"You remember that church that was across the street from the warehouse where you pushed that Indian chick off that warehouse's roof?" Ugly Kid asked.

"Yeah," Peter said reluctantly, despised at the reminder of what the Gaines Twins made him to Indy. "That's where it is?"

"No, it's at a punk rock dance studio at the other side of town, of course that's where the angels' base is located beneath! Now go there now, because the clock is ticking down for your aunt."

Breathing out through his nose in anger, Peter stripped down to being Spider-Man again, turned around, opened May's hospital room's window, and perched on the window's frame before he briefly turned back and asked Ugly Kid, "How can I make sure you'll keep your word?"

Ugly Kid snorted. "You can't."

With that, Spider-Man turned back and swung back out into the city.

~o~

Less than half an hour later, in the one-way alley across the street from the church that covered over the angels' secret base, a manhole was lifted up and removed from the hole it was placed in. First to come out was Brian, then Niske, then Botya and Majes, and then several other human-disguised demons that followed.

Once all of the demons were on the surface and facing the church across the street, Niske turned to Brian and asked, "So, what's the plan? Ugly Kid has assigned you to lead us to invade that church and destroy the base beneath. How are we to do that when we confront all those angels down below?"

"That's not gonna happen," all of the demons heard a voice from up above say.

They all looked above and saw Spider-Man crouching on the ledge of one of the alley's buildings. He then spout out a web-line that found its mark on the small of Brian's back, and then he yanked him all the way up.

But once Brian was in a close distance to Spider-Man, he quickly took out his gun, but before he could fire, the vigilante knocked the weapon out of his hand. However, Brian managed to follow up by tackling Spider-Man back onto the roof. The two of them rolled around there for a while before the superhero was able to kick the human-disguised demon off of him.

The two of them leapt up to their feet, rushed to each other, and engaged in a fistfight while, back in the alley that Spider-Man pulled Brian from, Niske, Botya, Majes, and all of the other demons were either using a ladder or the alley's metal staircase on the side of the building that Spider-Man and Brian were currently fighting on.

Once all of those demons finally reached the rooftop, Spider-Man was able to get past Brian's defenses and knock him out with a single superhuman punch to the face. But even though Brian would be out of it for a while now, Spider-Man's spider-sense activated just in the nick of time to react to the threat of the demons from the alley; he managed to shift from the position he was in when he defeated Brian and spout out two web-lines, one for each of the first demons who either came up on the ladder or by the staircase, and yanked their guns out of their hands. Two seconds later, those demons were bonked in the heads when Spider-Man used the same web-lines he previously used mere seconds earlier to fling the weapons back to their previous owners, knocking them unconscious and having them fall back to their deaths in the alley below.

Seeing what would happen if they would use their weapons, the rest of the demons holstered their guns and came up two at a time to charge Spider-Man in the direct approach. However, the first two demons once again made the mistake of trying to use their guns again once they got in close; since Spider-Man was faster in reflexes, he was able to get past the defenses of one of those first two demons, quickly grab his weapon arm, and use it to dispatch the other demon before using the gun again on its owner.

From then on, the next few demons who were able to see what happened to two of their kind decided not to use weapons and just attack Spider-Man with their might alone. However, those demons who didn't see what happened to the comrades who were gunned down ended up having the same fates, and even a few of the demons who decided not to use their guns were shot down for their trouble in trying to defeat Spider-Man.

Meanwhile, as the fight on the rooftop progressed, Bernie and Jeff, their ski masks off so as to avoid attention and suspicion from the public they were among, happened to be in the streets below, and the sounds of gunfire had frightened the nearby civilians. In no time, the sirens of the police and ambulance began ringing from several blocks away.

"Do you think Peter finally found Brian and the demons he was with?" Jeff asked Bernie as he nodded his head to the roof of the building where the shooting came from.

"If that's so, I wonder how his visit with his aunt at the hospital went," Bernie said as he and Jeff went into the alley that would lead them to the roof.

They pulled out and slipped over their ski masks before Jeff took the ladder and Bernie took the staircase. Less than a minute later, both angels found that Spider-Man was fighting against a few human-disguised demons without guns as they battled amongst the corpses of all the other demons. Both Bernie and Jeff didn't notice Brian's unconscious form among the bodies as they rushed in to join Spider-Man against the few demons; using their Heaven guns would have hurt or killed the superhero.

Eventually, the few demons that Spider-Man, Bernie, and Jeff were fighting, which included Niske, Botya, and Majes, decided to retreat the way they and their now-dead brethren first came to the roof from. Most of the remaining demons were gunned down along the way by Bernie and Jeff, so the only ones to escape as they slid down the ladder were Niske, Botya, and Majes. The former two demons jumped into the open manhole in the middle of the alley first as Bernie and Jeff vainly tried to shoot them down, and it was Majes who was the last to go as he pulled the sewer lid over the manhole above him.

The police and paramedics arrived to find out what all the shooting was about, a few cops seeing the dead bodies in the alley. Bernie and Jeff ducked back before the police could see them when they looked up, and they turned to Spider-Man.

"We gotta get outta here!" Jeff said.

Spider-Man then rushed over to the ledge that the cops and paramedics would come up from, and he webbed them all before any of them could call backup; that would give Bernie and Jeff ample time to escape, and would be more convenient for Spider-Man to take Brian away back to Ugly Kid.

"Hey, it's Brian!" Bernie called over Spider-Man and Jeff as the human-disguised demon groaned as he woke up.

Bernie then aimed his gun, and when Brian's eyes widened at the sight of the barrel staring back at him, Bernie said, "Goodbye, Brian."

But Bernie's shot went wild as Spider-Man deflected the shot away from Brian's head and into the concrete of the roof's ground. The vigilante then stomped on Brian's head to knock him unconscious again.

"What're you doing, Spider-Man?" Jeff asked in disbelief.

"That's not either of your business," Spider-Man said to both angels as flung the stunned Brian's form over his shoulders, webbing the human-disguised demon's hands in between his own shoulder blades.

Then the vigilante ran toward a ledge, leaving a perplexed Bernie and Jeff staring in confusion at what was going on now, and Spider-Man swung away.

~o~

Less than ten minutes later, Spider-Man swung right through the open window of Aunt May's hospital room, Brian still strapped to his back. Ugly Kid stood expectantly at the other side of the unconscious old woman's bed.

Spider-Man then pulled Brian off of his back and laid his unconscious form at his feet. "Okay, I have Brian here, and he's alive. So do you agree to keep to your deal, Ugly Kid?"

"Of course I do," the Antichrist replied as he walked around the bed and approached Spider-Man. He stopped at Brian's unconscious form and kneeled down. Ugly Kid then opened his mouth and inhaled. Soon, a black mist swirled out of Brian's own mouth, entering the Antichrist until it was all gone.

A few seconds later, after Ugly Kid stood up from his current position, Brian moaned to wakefulness again. "Am I going to be punched out again?" he asked to no one in particular. Once he was fully alert, he leapt to his feet to face the Antichrist. "Ugly Kid! What the hell did you tell Peter that made him and all the other angels think I was working for you?"

"Oh, but you really were working for me, Brian," Ugly Kid said slyly. "You just didn't know it."

"Huh?" Spider-Man and Brian asked the same question simultaneously.

"Did you really think I would deliberately let you go from Hell, Brian?" Ugly Kid retorted. "I was counting on you to go to Uatu and tell him what I did in Hell, and then work with the angels for the next few centuries to hunt me down; you see, when you exited Hell, I already had the gateway you used to leave imparted with a spell to implant within you a kind of vision that could be relayed into my own mind, kind of like putting cameras behind your eyeballs; hence, everything you see and know, I see and know as well, Brian, and I can handle it since I'm the Antichrist. But since I already told Peter over here that you were spying for us, even if inadvertently, I decided to take that spell away from you along with the hypnosis potion that Niske injected into you before you escaped your cell in the angels' base; with your position as my primary spy ineffective now, there's no point in keeping you on, nor is there anyway. My plans are in such motion, no one can stop it now even if God did right the Multiverse and decided to come down here right now to defeat me."

"Spell? Potion?" Spider-Man asked, ignoring what Ugly Kid just said about his plans. "I thought you were a demon, Ugly Kid, not a witch."

"I'm the son of the Devil, that's different from a demon," Ugly Kid corrected.

"So, anyway, are you going to take Aunt May's memory of everything from when you invaded her home to what you did to her here?" Spider-Man asked.

"I already told you, I'll do it, Peter, keep your pants on," the Antichrist said as he turned back to the unconscious old woman, opened his mouth, and again, a black swirl flowed out of May's mouth that went into Ugly Kid's.

During this process, Brian turned to Spider-Man and asked, "Wait, wait, wait, you made a deal with him, Peter?"

"I had no choice, Brian," Spider-Man defended himself. "He was going to kill Aunt May if I didn't deliver you to him. But I am sorry for thinking that you'd intentionally betray us, and for hitting you all those times."

Before Brian could say anything more on the matter, Ugly Kid finished inhaling the black swirl from Aunt May, and he turned back to Spider-Man and Brian. "When she wakes up, she'll be wondering what she's doing here in the first place, but she'll be fine."

"I'd say thank you if you weren't a bad guy I was trying to stop," Spider-Man retorted.

"Fair enough," Ugly Kid replied in the same tone.

"So, wait, not that I still intend to kill you, Ugly Kid," Brian interjected, "but if you wanted me when I was already under the hypnosis potion, why didn't you just summon me? Why did you have to have Peter here get me after you sent me on that failed mission to the angels' base?"

"I asked him the same thing," Spider-Man said to Brian before turning his attention back to the Antichrist. "What was all this about, Ugly Kid? And what do you want particularly with Brian here?"

Ugly Kid chuckled. "You know, Peter, instead of complying with my demand to get Brian here, have you ever considered going to the angels after I just told you what I assigned Brian to do, you capture him, and the angels would have invaded this hospital just to kill me? I mean, I would've seen it coming, probably would've escaped, and even killed your aunt beforehand because of your betrayal to me, but still, the thought of going to the angels first never occurred to you? Especially after you were so close to their base, when I told you where it was?"

Spider-Man was silent at that.

"I wonder why you didn't do any of that, Peter," Ugly Kid said. "Was it because that you knew it would jeopardize your aunt's life more if you did? Do you feel so guilt-ridden and emotionally perturbed that you don't want to find your aunt dead the same way you saw your uncle die? Hmm? In your fear for your aunt's life, did you forget why the angels recruited you, to take me out; or did you intentionally block it from your mind so you wouldn't feel so guilty of robbing the angels of a chance in killing me and restoring the balance of good and evil in the Multiverse?"

As Spider-Man stood there, his silence continued, body language unreadable, Brian looked away from his superhero counterpart and back to the Antichrist. "So what about me? What did you want me for? You wanna kill me because I still owe my allegiance to Satan, Ugly Kid?"

"Actually, Brian, I don't really intend to kill you now," Ugly Kid said. "But that time will come soon; sooner than you think. And as you burn in the flames of my home, I'll be laughing at the pathetic allegiance you owed to my father all this time, Brian. But as for why I wanted Peter here to give you to me; it was all something to screw his life up in the long-run."

Brian raised in eyebrow in wonderment, but before he could ask, Spider-Man finally snapped out of his silence and asked, "What're you talking about?"

Ugly Kid smiled evilly, baring his sharp, wooden, and crooked teeth. "You'll see."

With that, he changed back into Dr. Illgue again and turned around. Spider-Man then shot out one web-line for each wrist, but Illgue swiftly spun out of the way and kicked the charging Brian up the jaw, knocking him down to the floor. And when Spider-Man leapt over Aunt May's bed, Illgue grabbed the superhero's wrists and flung him to the floor on his back before curb-stomping his head against the floor.

Now that both Spider-Man and Brian were down for the moment, Illgue turned back again and opened the door, leaving the room. Ten seconds later, the superhero and human-disguised demon got up to their feet and charged out of the room. Once they were out in the hall, people were surprised to find that Spider-Man was in the hospital, but he and Brian paid the crowd no mind as they searched around for Dr. Illgue.

A few seconds later, the superhero and human-disguised demon saw Illgue entering an elevator several meters down the hall. They rushed over to it, but the last thing they saw before the doors closed before them was the disgusting smirk that shone on Illgue's face.

However, that didn't stop Spider-Man as he slipped his fingers through the seam in between the doors and pulled them apart. Brian slipped his head in to look down with Spider-Man as they saw the elevator that the disguised Ugly Kid took descended to the ground floor.

"Hey!" Spider-Man and Brian heard off to the side.

A couple of security guards were rushing in to stop them, but the superhero and human-disguised demon jumped in through the open entrance and descended in a free-fall down towards the elevator, which itself was still descending.

By the time the elevator finally reached the ground level, Spider-Man broke both his and Brian's fall by abruptly spouting out a web-line to a higher level and grabbing Brian before he landed in a fatal splat. The superhero then let go of the web-line and allowed himself and his companion to drop the last few meters, both landing in a crouch, and then Spider-Man wasted no second in pulling a section of the elevator's roof off so that he and Brian could drop in respectively.

Those already in the elevator were startled with Spider-Man and Brian's unorthodox arrival into the elevator, and neither of them wasted any second being courteous in replacing the section of the elevator's roof that Spider-Man pulled off as they rudely but necessarily pushed past the people in front of them and slipped right through the closing elevator entrance.

But once the two of them found themselves in the lobby of the hospital, they looked around, but couldn't find Dr. Illgue anywhere.

However, they did find Bernie and Jeff approach them from the direction of the hospital's entrance.

"Wait, I can explain–" Spider-Man tried to say.

"Lange wants to see you," Bernie said. "The both of you."

Without saying another word, both Spider-Man and Brian were reluctantly led out of the hospital. Jeff hailed a cab once they were outside, and all four of them climbed in.

"Huh," the cabbie said when he looked in his rearview mirror. "Never thought I'd be driving Spider-Man around."

Jeff then told the cabbie what their destination was, and he drove them to the church that hid the angels' base.

~o~

Several minutes later, after Jeff paid the fine for the trip from the hospital, Spider-Man and Brian were led out by Bernie and Jeff and were led into the church.

Not much longer later, after the four of them travelled to the underground of the church, Bernie and Jeff escorted their companions into a room with a long table and one chair at either end of that table. At the opposite end of where the four of them were, Lange sat there patiently.

"Bernie, Jeff, you may both leave now," she said. "But keep in mind, I will be reprimanding the both of you for allowing Mr. Parker to abandon the parameters of his mission."

"Understood, Miss Lange," Jeff nodded.

"Got it," Bernie also nodded before he and Jeff left.

"Uatu has told me something that concerns the both of you," Lange said to Spider-Man and Brian. "It has been about all that has happened since the Antichrist had arrived in New York City. The revelation he made of your betrayal, Brian, was only half-true; you had been inadvertently giving the Antichrist secrets of ours."

"I know," Brian said with a nod of his head. "But he took that spell away; he has no use for me anymore."

"Why has he not killed you then?" Lange asked.

Brian shrugged. "He said there was a better time for it later."

Lange then looked over to Spider-Man. "And you, Mr. Parker. Take a seat." Spider-Man hesitantly complied while Lange said, "Brian, your business here is done; now that the Antichrist doesn't know what you know from hereon, you are reinstated as a member of the hunting party against him. On behalf of the angels, I apologize for the torture you endured."

Brian nodded. "Thank you, Miss Lange." Then he left.

"So," Lange said to Spider-Man, "Uatu has told me that had saved Brian from death–for the Antichrist."

"I didn't do it for Ugly Kid, Lange," Spider-Man said angrily, "I did it for my aunt; he was gonna kill her if I didn't do what he said."

Lange leaned forward, scrutinizing the superhero. "Do you really think your aunt was worth obeying–"

"Of course she was worth it!" Spider-Man screamed. "I would do anything for her! Anything!"

"Even if that meant damning the Multiverse and sealing her fate, along with the fate of every single living being in all of existence?"

"Yes!" Spider-Man answered defiantly.

Lange leaned back slowly. "What you have done, Mr. Parker, was unforgivable. While you did save Brian's life, you have given the Antichrist a very important thing; willful obedience, even when you knew the consequences your actions would bring upon the Multiverse by allowing Memmon his continued existence."

When Lange said that, what Ugly Kid told him back in the hospital struck Spider-Man to his core again.

"However," Lange continued, "your action, served under the Antichrist, could be remedied, by serving evil in another way."

"So, wait, my punishment for serving evil is to serve it again?" Spider-Man asked. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"You are not being punished for serving evil generally, you are reprimanded for serving the Antichrist specifically," Lange said. "And as I said, I am offering you a chance to redeem yourself of such a sin."

Spider-Man sighed in defeat. "What do you want me to do?"


	8. Chapter 8

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds

Episode 8: The Live, The Dead, and the Ugly

"Peter Parker," Beatrice Lange said to Spider-Man from the other side of the table they were both sitting in, "for briefly serving the Antichrist, here is what you must know: Uatu has informed me that a crime boss known as Richard Fisk's drug peddling operations are being hindered by a crime boss of lesser power known as Billy Russoliti. In order to take care of this, Fisk has hired a psychotic mercenary known as Deadpool to kill Russoliti. If Deadpool is successful in terminating Russoliti's life, Fisk's revenue will go up as Russoliti's empire will fall. So, in order to redeem yourself for serving Memmon, you must prevent Deadpool from killing Russoliti until the crime boss decides to move out of New York City. This is the meaning of this test: You will prevent one evil from fully blooming to its highest potential even if it means assisting the survival of another evil, who will not flourish to the best of his abilities anyway. Do you understand so far?"

"I do," Spider-Man replied.

"Then you are now to go out there to the docks later tonight," Lange said, "as Uatu has also told me that there is a shipment of drugs being brought in by Fisk's men, which will be ambushed by Russoliti's men and Deadpool in six hours. There, you must do everything within your spider-like powers to make sure that Deadpool will not be able to successfully interrogate any of Russoliti's men so that he cannot find him. Do whatever you have to in order to foil the purpose of Deadpool's assignment, even if it means that you yourself will have to bring upon the end of the lives of of Russoliti's men with your bare hands.

"The reason that you are not to kill Deadpool himself is because it would be a fruitless endeavor; Deadpool has a healing ability that allows him to survive anything that would kill a normal human being. If and when you have succeeded, you are to report back to me immediately through your standard mean of communication through Brian and Bernie's computer in their apartment. Do you understand what you have to do in terms of your mission parameters?"

Spider-Man was silent for a moment as he stared contemptibly at Lange before he replied with, "Do you really expect me to kill, even if those lives you bring up are better off dead anyway, Lange?"

"I certainly did not expect you to serve the Antichrist, Mr. Parker," Lange countered with the same level of calm and detached formality, yet still making her tone feel as cold as Antarctic ice. "And you appear to have no qualms about killing Memmon either. What should I expect from you next? A bank robbery? Now, I will ask you again. Do you understand what you have to do now?"

"Yes, I do understand what I have to do," Spider-Man replied, his own heated tone unabated.

"And may I _expect_ you," Lange continued, emphasizing that word to remind Spider-Man of his service to Ugly Kid, "to carry out with that duty? Or do I have to remind you that this is the only way to circumvent the consequence of serving the Antichrist?"

Even in spite of his mask hiding his facial expressions, Lange knew he rolled his eyes at her. "I'll carry out with the duty."

"Then you are dismissed," Lange said.

After Spider-Man left, Lange left a few moments later. Then, when it was sure that both of them were gone, the micro-sized camera placed on the side of the exit of the room had exploded, its usefulness worn out now.

And that was because the mole within the angels' organization already got the information he wanted.

~o~

Later that night, two cargo boats came into New York Harbor, carrying loads of cocaine and heroin. Several dozen of Richard Fisk's men began loading in the shipments of drugs into their vans so that their boss could make his profit selling the illegal products to his addictive customers. The whole operation was overlooked by a few dirty cops as official onlookers and who would report everything clean to their superiors for Fisk's sake.

But like a few of the other drug-loading operations of Fisk's that have gone awry before, the men of Billy Russoliti began their attack on Fisk's men by popping out from behind the crates that dotted the dock all around. Russoliti's men's guns began firing instantly, in which two of Fisk's men fell dead from the initial wave of gunfire, while the rest dropped what they were doing so that they could take cover behind the crates that weren't occupied by their opponents.

The sixth gunfight between Fisk's men and Russoliti's men in the last month broke out, with the dirty cops immediately assisting the former. Several men from each side fell whenever their enemies got off a lucky shot or two, but still, despite Russoliti's lesser influence and wealth in the criminal underworld, his men were winning in the gunfight against Fisk's men and the dirty cops, as those of the latter group were losing twice their men than those who worked for Russoliti.

But then, all of a sudden, a red-clad man with two katana swords busted out of one of the crates like the Kool-Aid Man, and that crate happened to be a hiding spot for a few of Russoliti's men.

"Surprise!" the man exclaimed to the crooks before he slashed them all dead with his swords, not giving any of them a chance to try to shoot him down.

This red-clad man was the psychotic mercenary hired by Richard Fisk, Deadpool.

"It's okay, guys!" Deadpool called back to Fisk's men. "I've got this now! You just leave the killing to me so that I can interrogate the very last guy who'll tell us where Russoliti is and then kill him! All right!"

"You moron, you don't shout out the plan like that when there're still more of these guys here!" one of Fisk's men shouted.

"Yeah! And why the hell didn't you do this earlier, idiot?" another of Fisk's men asked. "What in God's name were you waiting for?"

"I was waiting to finally find the proper moment to make my grand reveal!" Deadpool called back.

"What're you talking about?" one of Fisk's men asked.

"I'm talking about probably the first time breaking the fourth wall has ever been performed in a novel-like format like this!" Deadpool replied. "But then, the writer of this story doesn't really know a lot since he'd still be in high school at the time this is being written, so maybe there were stories like this that broke the fourth wall in their own ways!"

"Did you already smoke one of the drugs we were loading, man?" one of Fisk's men called out.

"At this point in my life, I don't know whether I was a coke addict, a Pepsi addict, or even a televangelist who said that smoking weed and homosexuality is a bad thing," Deadpool replied. "I mean, next thing you know, they're gonna be saying that killing, stealing, cheating, and lying are all bad! Huh! What is this world coming to?"

"Can you just shut up and do your job already, Deadpool?" one of Fisk's men called out.

"You know, the writer of this story should give you names, so that the text doesn't always read 'one of Fisk's men' whenever any of you guys say something, because it kinda gets monotonous, you know? But then you all have the personality of characters in _The Matrix_ movies anyway–"

"Wait, wait, wait, we've been set up?" one of Russoliti's men called out.

"Hey, c'mon, man! You didn't even let me finish my sentence! I mean, how are the dumb, doo-doo head readers out there supposed to know that 'twas I, Maximus Awesomess Gladiator Deadpool, who had spoken this line and the second-to-last line before this one?"

"C'mon, guys, we gotta get outta here!" one of Russoliti's men called out.

"Oh, all right," Deadpool said in an annoyed tone, "let's just get this over with then."

Deadpool then replaced the swords in their holsters on his back, then he ducked out from the protection that the crate in front of him provided while taking out the pistols holstered at his sides. He ran forward and shot randomly at whatever moved, since anyone on this side of the docks was a thug of Billy Russoliti's. Surprisingly, nearly everyone of those shots was successful, either hitting something on those men's bodies like their heads or chests that ended their lives instantly. Eventually, after a few more minutes or so, Deadpool had dispatched with all of Russoliti's men at the docks before

And he did it all while singing a Katy Perry song.

"Okay, that's bullshit!" Deadpool called out to the sky. "You know I would never sing that crap in a million years! I would sing Kesha, however!"

"Are they all dead?" one of Richard Fisk's men called out to Deadpool.

"I think so!" Deadpool called back. "Ya happy now, guys?"

"Actually, no, we're not!" that very same man of Fisk's replied. "You weren't supposed to kill _every_ one of them! You're supposed to leave at least one alive to–"

Suddenly, a man ducked out from behind one of the crates, which was several yards away from Deadpool, and took some failed potshots at the Merc with the Mouth, who had ducked back behind the closest crate in reaction.

Deadpool had forgotten that he missed this guy during his shooting frenzy, he remembered.

"Hey, guys, I guess I didn't kill every one of them!" he called back to Fisk's men.

"Well, gee, that's great!" one of Fisk's men called back with a snide tone. "Then take him down, but alive, ah-capisi?"

"No thanks, I'm not hungry!" Deadpool called back. "Wait a minute, did I just steal that joke from Dane Cook? I'm not that desperate for material! And from an obscure nineties' movie with Dennis Rodman of all references! What are you thinking, Mr. Writer, sir?"

"What're you talking about, pal?" the remaining thug of Billy Russoliti's asked.

"I'm talking about that movie just recently reviewed by the Nostalgia Critic!" the thug heard Deadpool call from the same position he first heard him from. "What was it called? I forgot! It had a coupla' dancing cyber monks, who danced really bad, by the way, a hot ninja chick who got into some disco sex with Dennis Rodman, and a weirdass over-the-top, overacting bad guy who makes Richard Roxburgh look subtle! What was the title of that film? Oh, yeah! Now I remember!"

Suddenly, Deadpool appeared right from the side of the crate that the surviving thug was hiding behind, and instantly cut off the thug's gun hand with one of his katana swords before the crook even had a chance to get off a shot.

As the thug fell to his knees in pain and he screamed in agony, grasping his bloody stump of a hand, Deadpool concluded with, "It was called _Double Team_! No, wait, _Double Team_ was the one with Jean-Claude Van-Damme and Dennis Rodman. Eh, it had cyber monks and was reviewed by the Nostalgia Critic anyway, so close enough."

"Deadpool, would you just shut up and interrogate him about where Russoliti is already?" one of Fisk's men called out.

"All right, all right, I'll do my business, nameless redshirt of a thug," Deadpool replied. He then walked up to the agonized thug, grabbed him by his shoulders, and then slammed him against the crate behind him, eliciting another painful scream from him. "All right, pal," Deadpool continued, "now to act serious, contrary to my usual motto, I shall ask you: where's Russoliti?"

"I don't know!" the man cried through the shock in his leg. "I swear to God–"

"Swear to me!" Deadpool shouted as if he were the Christian Bale Batman. He followed that line up by taking out of his swords and then stabbing it up through the stump, eliciting a raw shriek of pure agony as the blade severed more nerves in his stump of an arm.

All of a sudden, however, Spider-Man swung in and kicked Deadpool back and away from the thug. As the Merc with the Mouth flew away, his sword ripped away from the arm, Spider-Man turned back to the man who had his hand swiftly amputated, and who was now in a heaping spasm of pain on the ground.

"You're gonna be all right," Spider-Man said to the downed man as he knelt next to him, trying to think of what to do so that he could help him.

"Yeah, the only thing more convincing than that statement is saying that Britney Spears can have a lasting marriage," Deadpool replied as Spider-Man's spider-sense kicked in.

The Merc with the Mouth swung both katana blades low to try to decapitate Spider-Man in a scissor-like fashion, but the latter flipped back from the attack while simultaneously kicking the swords out of Deadpool's hands. Then, upon landing in a crouch a few meters away from Deadpool, Spider-Man shot out one web-line from each hand to yank in both katana swords from out of the air before their owner could catch them once they began descending to the ground. Now in Spider-Man's hands, he cut one of the blades off with the other before snapping the remaining intact blade like a twig with his own two hands.

"You know, psychotic mercenaries such as yourself shouldn't be playing with sharp objects like these," Spider-Man quipped. "After all, you could poke somebody's eye out."

"Oh, c'mon, that line has become such a cliché at this point, Spider-Man!" Deadpool said. "And who the hell do you think you are? I'm supposed to be the guy who says funny things, not you! You're supposed to be this angsty douchebag Batman-wannabe!"

"Who's the wannabe here when you look just like me?" Spider-Man retorted.

Deadpool then slapped his forehead in irritation. "Oh, God! Why does everyone always point that out? That's it, you're going down!"

And just like that, he pulled out his large handguns and began firing. But Spider-Man, as usual, jumped over the incoming bullets before they could touch them, and again, just like with the swords, one web-line from each hand sent those guns right into his own hands for him to crash together and have them fall into pieces on the way down.

"Hey, you know how much time and effort I spent in making those swords and guns? Well, none actually, they were made by other people, but still!" Deadpool cried out once Spider-Man landed, letting the pieces of the guns fall to the ground at his feet. The Merc with the Mouth then cranked his head in the direction of both his shoulders, as if in preparation for combat. "Okay, now we settle this the old-fashioned way."

"I'm ready when you are–" Spider-Man tried to say.

"With a yo-momma contest!" Deadpool interrupted.

"What?" Spider-Man asked.

"Yo momma is so fat, that when she sit around the house, she sit _around_ the house!"

"Deadpool, what the hell are you doing?" one of Richard Fisk's men called out.

"Take it easy, guys, I'm gonna yo-momma him to death! It'll work, trust me!"

"Ah, to hell with this!" that same men of Fisk's announced to his fellow thugs. "Waste Spider-Man!"

"Aw, c'mon, guys, me and webhead didn't even get into a half-decent fight yet!" Deadpool called out as Fisk's men drew guns on Spider-Man. "And I had like a hundred and forty-nine more yo-momma jokes to use!"

In the time it took Deadpool to say that, Spider-Man had already jumped into the throng of Fisk's men and was already dispatching them one by one as he moved swiftly and quickly among them, without ever letting any of Fisk's men safely get off a shot, since at such close range, they would only hurt their friends if they doubtless missed their real target.

After less than a minute, all of Fisk's men were out for the count.

"Wow, that was fast," Deadpool commented. "And to think that the writer of this story would put in a little bit more detail into that for this story to extend it to its full eleven pages."

With all of Fisk's men defeated, Spider-Man turned back to Deadpool and asked, "So you say you want a fight?"

Suddenly, before Deadpool could answer, raging sirens from police cruisers rang out as they pulled over at the docks.

"Ah, you know what, not really, I changed my mind," Deadpool replied as he was kneeling to the man of Billy Russoliti's who was in shock. "I have a job to do. Toodles." Then he gathered him up, placed him on his shoulders, and charged off to the side.

Spider-Man tried to stop Deadpool by firing one web line from each wrist, but they missed their target as the Merc with the Mouth got out of sight as he ducked behind a crate. Spider-Man followed, but found that Deadpool was gone.

"Damn!" Spider-Man muttered. "How do they always do that?" He then spout out a web line from his left wrist and swung off just as some cops, led by Officer Barr, appeared from behind one of the crates in the docks, looking for anyone left alive in the docks. Fortunately for them, they managed to catch the surviving men of Richard Fisk and their dirty police associates, and arrested them because of the drugs they clearly shipped in.

"You! Stop right there! Put that man on the ground and put your hands in the air!" Spider-Man, who was perched on a nearby lamppost after his swing, heard one of the cops below at the entrance to the docks call out. He looked down and found that a few cops were pointing their guns at Deadpool, the dismembered and bleeding goon he captured hanging around his shoulders like a human scarf, just after he left the docks.

"You'll never take me alive, coppers!" Deadpool replied in a mock-New Yorker voice as, with one hand, he swiftly took out one of his handguns from its holster and quickly aimed it at one of the officers.

But those cops were quicker in their response as, without hesitation, they opened fire on the Merc with the Mouth.

As the bullets ripped through Deadpool, they incidentally also tore through the body of the crook around his shoulders, and the two of them flopped to the ground, lifeless, and a giant puddle of mixed blood pooling beneath their corpses.

"Hey, it's Spider-Man!" one of the cops elsewhere in the docks called out. Spider-Man himself turned his head to the direction where the call came from, and indeed, he saw a cop indicating to his fellow officers where the spider-like vigilante was. "Take him down!" that same cop intoned as he and the other officers pulled out their firearms and aimed them in Spider-Man's direction.

Without a second's hesitation, Spider-Man leapt off and swung away before any of the other cops in the docks could get a lock on his previous location. Normally, he would have stuck around to make sure that Deadpool wouldn't have been able to do anything that would lead him to Billy Russoliti's location, but seeing as how the cops were all here, he decided to leave it to them at this point.

Spider-Man should have also warned them of Deadpool's healing ability, but seeing as how they wouldn't listen to him anyway, it would have been pointless and dangerous anyway. That was a shame, too, for the cops, for just seconds after Spider-Man swung off and away from the docks, disappearing a few blocks away around the corner of a building, the gunshots in Deadpool's body unexpectedly healed before the eyes of the cops who shot him down.

That was the last thing all of those cops saw before Deadpool quickly lifted up his head and unhesitatingly made precise, pinpoint shots right in the middle of each officers' heads in less than two seconds as he lay several yards away. Those unfortunate officers were dead before they hit the ground less than a second later, and Deadpool wasted no second himself as he rolled back over his shoulders and up to his feet.

Once he was up to his full height again, he quickly whipped out his other handgun as the exiting forms of several other cops leaving the docks with the surviving men of Richard Fisk and their dirty associates in the police department saw what had happened to their colleagues. He quickly triggered both weapons as he stepped back a few steps, leaving a covering fire to the other cops, who, by then, in spite of the added weights and resistance of their new prisoners, had ducked back behind the crates dotting the docks.

Deadpool kept on clicking his resounding firearms, even though there were no targets in his crosshairs, and though he was walking back, he didn't stumble or trip against anything as he backed up across the empty street and into an alley. Once he was in that alley, he turned around and dashed right in. A few of the cops back at the docks leaned back out and quickly shot at nothing while Deadpool had replaced his guns in their holsters and lifted the manhole that led to the sewers in that alley. And as he began to gradually climb down into the disgusting muck below, he replaced the lid back across the hole before he just decided to drop into that muck.

He was in total crap now, Deadpool realized, both figuratively and literally, as he walked through the human waste that engulfed his ankles.

"Or at least I would be," Deadpool said out loud as he stopped in his tracks, "if I didn't have this!" Then he whipped out a cell phone that he showed in the direction of a dark corner of the sewer.

~o~

An hour later, at Brian and Bernie's apartment, Brian, dressed in his pajamas, opened the door to find Peter there, adorned in his civilian clothing. "Peter, what are you doing here, do you have any idea what time it is right now?" Brian asked as he looked at his watch. He had responded to the knock on his door that had occurred moments earlier.

"Sorry to disturb you, Brian," Peter apologized, "but I just need to call Lange from here, seeing as how you and Bernie have the reliable communication to her. I just need to inform her that the mission in stopping Deadpool from finding out Billy Russoliti's location was a success."

"All right, come on in," Brian said as he allowed Peter in.

Minutes later, Peter was at the computer from which he could talk to Lange. Once her form appeared on the monitor, the first thing she said was, "Report."

"The mission at the docks was successful, Miss Lange," Peter said formally. "Deadpool failed to capture or interrogate any of Billy Russoliti's men in determining his location."

"That is good to hear," Lange said without inflection. "Now, Uatu had previously informed me that, in the event of your purported success, the next time you are to confront Deadpool will be in two days, at the Drip Den at six PM. Don't be late. You'll know what to do to stop him." And with that, she signed off.

~o~

The next day, Deadpool, coated in human waste, had emerged from the sewers after he lifted up against a manhole in the alley next to his apartment building. After replacing the lid of the manhole, he entered through the building's side entrance, and continued up the stairs until he was on the floor of his own apartment.

There, after he was inside, the first thing he did was cross over to a door several rooms away. He opened that door, and out flopped a thin, pasty man, with thick glasses. The man, sprawled across the floor in fatigue, wearily looked up at Deadpool.

"Hey, Weasel," Deadpool said. "Did you get a good sleep in there last night?"

"That's not funny, Wade," Weasel replied as he pushed himself up to his feet.

"Well, if we're talkin' Jerry Seinfeld funny, then I guess not," Deadpool retorted. "But now, if we were talking _Family Guy_..."

"Whatever, I need to get a good sleep for the rest of the day," Weasel said. "Thanks for giving me such a fair punishment when I ate the last Pringle yesterday."

"Wait, Wease," Deadpool said, stopping his computer genius friend–at least "friend" by the terms of the Merc with the Mouth–by grabbing him by the arm. "You know that job Richard Fisk sent me on last night to get the info on Billy Russoliti's whereabouts from one of his goons?"

"Yeah, what about it, did you botch it up?" Weasel asked.

"Hey, I didn't botch it up!" Deadpool exclaimed.

"So you succeeded in the mission and Russoliti is now dead?" Weasel asked.

Deadpool was silent for an awkward moment before he slapped him and said, "Don't question me, woman!"

"Ow! Okay, so what is it that you need?" Weasel asked as he rubbed his cheek.

"When I tried to kidnap the sole survivor of Russoliti's men," Deadpool explained as he took out a familiar device, "I got this off of him. It's a cell phone."

"Yes, I can see that, Wade," Weasel said as he looked at the object.

"Oh, no, I didn't say that for you," Deadpool said. "I was saying that for our stupid readers who probably forgot what I took from that guy last night."

Weasel shook his head at the statement his friend made. "What about this cell phone, Wade?" he asked.

"Well, I was thinking that maybe you could use your technical wizardry to use this cell phone to get Billy Russoliti's location through his number on speed dial," Deadpool said, "because I'm betting that Russoliti must've made at least a few calls to each of his goons for one reason or another, whether it would be disposing of a high-profile body or getting him pizza at the local Domino's."

"So you're saying you want me to trace his number back in order to determine his location?" Weasel asked.

"Duh," Deadpool replied.

"Well, I could do that," Weasel said. "However, I can't just do it by the number alone; we'd actually have to call him so I can have time to trace his location. Second, I need a good morning's sleep first."

"Oh, c'mon, Wease, do you _have to_ get the required rest needed for your mind and body to properly function throughout a regular day?" Deadpool asked.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Weasel asked.

"Oh, all right," Deadpool said reluctantly. "So how much do you need, like half a minute or so?"

Weasel sighed in frustration. "I'll let you know when I wake up," he said as he walked to his bedroom.

~o~

Billy Russoliti used an abandoned Olive Garden as a front for his operations. And in his office, he was sitting behind his desk as a pathetic, whiny man was begging not to kill him for being two days late in paying his hundred thousand dollar debt. Behind that man were two of Russoliti's goons who made sure that the bitchy vermin in front of their boss wouldn't try to run or do anything stupid.

"It's too late, Jimmy," Russoliti said as he opened a cabinet in his desk and pulled out a revolver. "Either you pay on time, or you don't."

But before Russoliti could pull the trigger, his cell phone rang. He rolled his eyes, put the gun down on the surface of his desk, and pulled out the phone.

"This had better be worth my time," Russoliti said.

"Hello, am I talking to a Mr. Russoliti?" a gravelly yet energetic voice said from the other end.

"Who wants to know?" Russoliti asked.

"Well, Mr. Russoliti, my name is Wade Wilson," the voice said. "And I'm calling to offer you an extension on your cell phone services. Now before you hang up like any other douchebag like you, I would like to tell you first that I'm the badass mofo who happened to carve up your guys last night at the docks. And if you would like to know where to find me, I'll be at the Drip Den café in NY. Now about that extension, you'll pay double the money for no real changes. How does that sound?"

Russoliti closed his cell, cancelling the call.

"What is it, boss?" one of the goons asked.

Before Russoliti answered, he picked up his revolver and it took one shot to kill Jimmy. Then Russoliti, after blowing the smoke emanating from his gun, placed the weapon in his jacket, stood up, and said, "Boys, we're gonna get a coffee."

~o~

After Russoliti hung up, Deadpool closed his stolen phone and looked over to a tired Weasel. "Did you get that, Wease?" the Merc with the Mouth asked.

"I did," Weasel answered as he looked away from the computer monitor. "He's at an abandoned Olive Garden in the outskirts of the city. But why did you tell him where you'll be? Why didn't you just call him without bothering me?"

"Well, in case I failed the mission again, I'd at least know where Russoliti was hiding so I could tail him back there and end him for good," Deadpool said.

"That actually sounds like a smart idea," Weasel said. "And it shows that you're not as much of an arrogant prick as you make yourself out to be."

"Shut up, woman!" Deadpool said before slapping Weasel to the ground.

~o~

The appearance of Billy Russoliti and six of his men at the Drip Den didn't go unnoticed by the café's attendees, including Peter Parker, who had waited alone, by himself with a coffee, at a table nearby the café's exit. He was waiting for the past several minutes for either Russoliti and his goons and/or Deadpool to show up.

As Russoliti walked up to the counter, unhindered by anyone waiting in line, so he could order a coffee, Peter's spider-sense tingled instantly. He turned in his seat, and was more perplexed by the way Deadpool arrived than he was shocked by it.

The Merc with the Mouth had apparently hijacked a police horse and some Old Western garb, complete with a black fedora, and he was riding that horse from across the street right towards the Drip Den. Cars screeched to a halt so they wouldn't hit the horse as it charged from the alley behind it at its insane rider's behest.

Everyone in the Drip Den, including Russoliti and his men, turned and saw the horse charging in. No one noticed as the mobsters took out their guns and aimed them at the café's windows, but before they could take a shot, the horse stopped in its tracks before it could hit the window. The momentum of the animal's stop caused Deadpool to fly from his saddle, pulling out his guns at the same time, and fired them through the Drip Den's windows.

As the bullets shattered the windows of the Drip Den, from both Deadpool and his targets, everyone in the café screamed and ducked to the floor to avoid getting shot. Russoliti and four of his men were able to duck behind a table next to a terrified couple while the other two men had been gunned down by Deadpool.

The Merc with the Mouth himself had rolled in across the floor of the Drip Den and came up guns blazing as he fired towards the hidden forms of Russoliti and his men. Another of the crime boss's goons was gunned down while the others had managed to successfully bolt right behind the counter that served coffee.

"Eeeee-haaaa!" Deadpool exclaimed. "Any y'all doggies wanna come out here so we can settle it out on the street like men?"

At that, one of Russoliti's goons appeared behind the counter and gunned Deadpool down with five shots.

"I got 'im, boss!" that goon said.

"Good job, Biff," Russoliti said as he and the others came up from behind the counter.

But at that instant, Deadpool suddenly came up and aimed his guns for the exposed mobsters.

However, before he could take a shot, two web-lines had yanked the guns out of his hands, and right into the hands of Spider-Man, standing right in front of the door leading to the men's bathroom.

"What the hell?" Russoliti exclaimed, confused as to how Deadpool could be alive and why Spider-Man was here.

Two of the goons fired upon Deadpool while the other one fired at Spider-Man. Russoliti, meanwhile, turned around and decided to run to the back of the café to escape, pushing away any employees in the way.

As for Spider-Man and Deadpool, the former cartwheeled out of the way of the incoming bullets, ducked behind an empty table, and then punched it out of its bolts so that it flew towards Russoliti's surviving goons. Deadpool, on the other hand, had allowed himself to be shot, seeing as how his healing ability could allow him to survive the onslaught of bullets; that way, when the goons finally ran out of bullets, he could take advantage of the lull in gunfire and take out the goons and their boss.

However, the flying table heading to the goons negated that plan, and the trio of mobsters ducked back behind the counter. Deadpool then leapt to his feet, ran to the counter, and by the time the trio of goons reemerged, he vaulted the counter and tackled them all to the floor. He grabbed the guns of two of the goons and used them to blow their brains out before turning one of the guns on the last surviving goon. And as soon as that last thug was dead, Deadpool looked up and saw Russoliti disappearing out the back of the café. He aimed the guns he grabbed for the mob boss, but was tackled against the trio of dead bodies from behind by Spider-Man.

Upon this tackle, Deadpool lost his hold on both guns and they flew out of his grip before he could get a shot off for Russoliti. Nevertheless, he was able to turn onto his back in spite of Spider-Man's weight on him and then smacked the vigilante across the face, knocking the superhero off of him. Deadpool then pushed himself to his feet just as Spider-Man did, and the two of them stared down at each other before the Merc with the Mouth swiftly turned to the back exit of the café and ran for it.

As expected by Deadpool, Spider-Man fired off at least one web-line for him, from which the Merc with the Mouth easily dodged and then continued onward for the exit. Spider-Man shot out yet another web-line from his wrist, but Deadpool was able to quickly grab a startled employee in his way and threw her in front of the strand. From then on, Deadpool was able to use the rest of the employees of the Drip Den to get in the way of whatever further strands Spider-Man tried to use to stop him.

Deadpool then charged out the back exit of the café, looked both ways in the alley he found himself in, and saw that there was one exit and no ladders or stairs that led up to the other building. So he turned to the alley's exit and ran for all the money that Richard Fisk was paying him to kill Russoliti. But just as he was out of the alley, he turned to the direction of screaming pedestrians, who were getting out of the way of a car that had mounted the curb. Deadpool was able to make out that the driver was Russoliti himself before the car plowed right into him.

The Merc with the Mouth flew back from the force of the vehicle and right into a lamppost, which toppled behind him, narrowly missing a hapless pedestrian. Meanwhile, because of the fact that the car was on the sidewalk, a hidden police cruiser from the alley across the street and behind Russoliti's car came out, sirens blaring. So, realizing that he didn't have enough time to finish off Deadpool, Russoliti drove past the downed Merc with the Mouth and drove off with the cruiser chasing after him.

But thanks to his healing ability, Deadpool was able to quickly recover from the impact of the car and jumped right on top of the passing cop car. After a few metres, the car stopped, since the driver and passenger inside knew that they had inadvertently picked up a hitchhiker. And when the car stopped, Deadpool rolled down across the front of the car, landed in a crouch in front of it, and turned around to face the officers that came out to confront him. He leapt for the former driver, tackled him to the ground, punched him out, took out the cop's gun, and used it to shoot out the leg of his partner.

As soon as that cop was incapacitated with unbearable pain, Deadpool hijacked the cop car and zoomed after Russoliti's vehicle just as Spider-Man swung out of the back alley of the Drip Den. The superhero noted the downed cops and figured that Deadpool had took the cruiser to chase down Russoliti.

Meanwhile, as Russoliti drove his car in haste, he noticed via the rearview mirror that Deadpool was driving the cop car. Then, once he took his eyes off the rearview mirror, he saw that he was coming up on a yellow light. So he pushed the gas pedal for all it was worth and zoomed, hoping that he could beat the light and make it through. Unfortunately for him though, the red light came up before he could clear the crosswalk and a large dump truck rammed him in from the passenger side. The mob boss's car twirled around while the truck stopped from the impact, and as soon as his car stopped, Russoliti turned to his window and saw the cop car driven by Deadpool charging for him.

So Russoliti leapt out of his seat and into the passenger side, even as it was crushed in from the other side, but it did save his life as the vehicle went around for another spin. Fifteen seconds later, when the spinning stopped, Russoliti turned onto his back and kicked open the door. He scrambled out and looked off to his side, only to find that he was looking up at the barrel of the gun held by Deadpool.

"As you Italians say, hasta le vista, baby," Deadpool said.

Russoliti didn't even have time to correct the Merc with the Mouth before the latter pulled the trigger, and the mob boss's brains had been splattered all over the pavement behind him.

~o~

"No!" Spider-Man exclaimed when he swung in to find that, too late, he arrived to find that he had failed his mission.

He landed several metres behind Deadpool, and the Merc with the Mouth swiftly turned around, firing off the gun. Spider-Man leapt over the incoming bullets and then swung in to kick Deadpool to at least see to it that the cops would arrest him after all this was over.

But Deadpool leapt and rolled out of the way of the incoming superhero, and as soon as he was crouched, he reached for his belt, pushed a button, and he just vanished into thin air.

Spider-Man, upon landing from the swing, looked at the area that Deadpool vanished at, perplexed. But he didn't stay there long, because the incoming sirens from police cruisers were getting louder from nearby. So he leapt up and swung away.

~o~

Deadpool appeared right out of thin air inside the apartment he shared with Weasel, though he was facing the exit.

"Hey, Wease! Your teleporter thingy works!" As he turned around, he said, "I honestly didn't figure–"

But Deadpool shut up in shock once he saw a hideous adolescent teenager standing there rather than Weasel. The teenager was holding a cell and saying into it, "He's dead? Good. Yeah, he's here. No, I'll just congratulate him; next time, he'll get it. Okay, bye, Niske." The hideous teenager then hung up the phone and said to Deadpool, "Don't worry about Weasel. He's in the Box right now. I'm just here to tell ya you did a good job on the Russoliti job. Now everything will go nice and smoothly."

And with that, Ugly Kid walked out the door, leaving a perplexed Deadpool in his wake. And it was because of the presence of the continuous presence of the Antichrist that the Merc with the Mouth was unable to firmly grasp his fictitious status to understand what he did in killing Russoliti.


	9. Chapter 9

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2: Against All Odds

_Author's Note: From this point on, I'm just going to write these stories by way of outlines, because I don't think the fight scenes or character development are really working out. Sorry to anyone who might be disappointed._

Episode 9: The Consequence

The episode starts out by going back to the climax of the fight between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin. As it turns out, when Spider-Man flung that pumpkin bomb back to the Goblin, the latter didn't die as originally thought; rather, he was only caught in the impact alone of the explosion, which sent him a block away. He crashed through a window of an abandoned, rundown apartment building, where he then crashed several floors below. The Goblin was knocked unconscious at that point, and when he woke up, he was met by Niske, Botya, and Majes. Niske tells the Goblin to lay low for a while with them, which will also give him the opportunity to make a new glider and weapons. The Green Goblin agreed to do this.

The episode then shifts back to the present, just after Spider-Man failed to stop Deadpool from killing Billy Russoliti. The Green Goblin has just finished constructing a new glider and some weapons to go along with it. Niske, Botya, and Majes come into his work area to tell him that, "It's time," to which the Goblin responds with: "Perfect timing," before activating his glider, ready to kill Spider-Man.

As Peter Parker stands across the street from the church from which the angels hide themselves, he is met by Mary Jane, who tells him that she's pregnant with his child. Shocked, Peter abruptly leaves MJ and goes back to his apartment to think about what this means to him. There, he thinks for a long time about how his child with Mary Jane would change his life before he's attacked by the Green Goblin. In spite of the attack, Peter is able to change into his Spider-Man costume and takes the fight outside, where the supervillain is able to explain how he survived their last encounter amidst their duel. The fight goes on for quite a bit, attracting the attention of local passerby and the police, before the Goblin abandons the battle when he sees Mary Jane among the crowd. He swoops in and kidnaps her, thinking to plan a sweeter revenge on his hated enemy than he did before. Spider-Man the swings after the Goblin to save MJ.

Spider-Man chases the Green Goblin all the way to the Queensboro Bridge, which was where the first Green Goblin had previously kidnapped Mary Jane. There, the Goblin places Mary Jane on the top of the bridge just as night sets over the city, and he and Spider-Man resume their fight. Much destruction ensues as the Goblin destroys several cars and kills several people in his attempts to finally end the life of Spider-Man. All the forces of 911 (the police, the firefighters, and the ambulance) arrive to commence what little damage control they can, with the firefighters doing their best to put out the fires, the paramedics taking away all the dead and wounded, and the police trying to shoot down both Spider-Man and the Green Goblin, occasionally causing more damage in the process. The fight becomes the scrutiny of some major media coverage from quite a few news networks; Brian and Bernie watch the event in horror for their friend Peter from off to the sidelines on the end of the bridge leading out of Manhattan; Beatrice Lange watches from her church base on her TV in cold objectivity; and Ugly Kid, with several minions, including Niske, Botya, and Majes, watch in glee at what the Antichrist knows is to come.

Eventually, the epic battle between Spider-Man and the Green Goblin culminates with one of the Goblin's pumpkin bombs exploding beneath the upper part of the bridge, where Mary Jane is. MJ is then thrown to begin falling to her death. Spider-Man tries to swing in to save her, but the Goblin continuously attacks him and blocks off the superhero's attempts to save his lover while she falls to her death. In the end, Mary Jane crashes on the roof of a car, and after witnessing this and screaming, "No!", the Goblin finally allows Spider-Man to swing over to his dying lover, just to allow him to have the grief sink in. Spider-Man lands next to Mary Jane, where he takes off his mask and reveals his identity to her. They then say their parting words to each other before Mary Jane passes away. Peter sobs at her loss before looking up, throws away his mask, and then tackles the Goblin off his glider. He then rips off the Goblin's mask, revealing Harry Osborn's visage. Soon, Peter and Harry's faces are revealed to the viewing public by all of the news cameras, with neither of them caring, as Peter then savagely beats his former friend to a bloody pulp. He then finishes Harry off by lifting him up his neck and then punching him right into on of the several burning cars across the bridge. Peter watches as Harry burns to death, screaming in painful agony, and after Harry also dies, Peter swings away. In response to all this, Brian and Bernie, in shock at what their friend did, decide to follow him. Meanwhile, Beatrice Lange shakes her head in expected disappointment, while Ugly Kid and his demonic followers throw a crazy, orgy-filled party at what had occurred on the bridge.

Less than ten minutes later, Peter stops swinging and lands on a rooftop to simply break down in tears again at the death of Mary Jane. Then, amidst his sobbing, he suddenly changes into a humanoid spider, becoming a rampaging monster known as the Man-Spider...

TO BE CONTINUED...


	10. Chapter 10

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2

Episode 10: Night of the Man-Spider

The episode begins just after the events of _The Consequence_. The Man-Spider is now rampaging through the streets of New York, with the police hounding him. The news coverage is still hounding the Man-Spider since he, as Spider-Man fought his last battle against the Green Goblin on the Queensboro Bridge. Meanwhile, back at the church where the angels are hiding, Ugly Kid calls Jeff, the angel from _Evil's Ugliness: Part Two_, and tells him that the time for his cover among the angels is now over; he should return to the Antichrist as soon as possible, for the end is going to begin. Jeff accedes, but not before he barges into Beatrice Lange's office, gets into a brief fight with her, and kills her by slitting her throat with a switchblade before any angels can stop the confrontation. Before he does kill her, however, he explains that he was the one who deliberately allowed Peter to visit his Aunt May so that Ugly Kid could manipulate him into doing his bidding, and thus, ruin Spider-Man's life. Jeff, having done away with Lange, then slits his own throat with the blade, and dies off.

Back in the rest of Manhattan, Brian and Bernie, in the aftermath of Spider-Man and the Green Goblin's final battle on the Queensboro Bridge, both agree that they should at least be the ones to kill the Man-Spider instead of the police; they owe it to their friend, Peter, that much. So they go out looking for him, going by the sound of police sirens echoing throughout Manhattan that indicate the chase for the Man-Spider. However, those sirens soon die down, as the Man-Spider is able to soon enter the subway and disappear on top of a passing train. The search for the Man-Spider falls into a brief, half-hour hiatus, during which Brian and Bernie go on their own search by simply walking through city, hoping they would meet the Man-Spider. During their search, however, they run into Niske, Botya, and Majes in an alley. A brief fight ensues, from which all of the combatants lose their guns, and a vial of black liquid falls from a pocket from Niske, and Bernie picks it up in between a break from combatting the three demons. The fight ends in a stalemate when the Man-Spider barges his way in from out of the sewers, and begins his rampage anew. Niske, Botya, and Majes break off their fight from their two opponents and attack the Man-Spider, but Niske finds that she is missing something vitally important to combatting the monster while Botya and Majes distracts Man-Spider. The police then show up, with Niske, Botya, and Majes discreetly moving out of the conflict, and they once again begin chasing down the monster. Brian and Bernie, forgetting about their guns, then decide to join in on the chase when they outright steal a motorcycle from the owner who was just parking it (though Bernie is able to make a promise to the owner that they'd return the bike). Niske, Botya, and Majes also join in on the chase by breaking in, hot-wiring, and stealing a car (and they forget about their guns, too).

As the chase commences, Bernie is able to show Brian, who is riding the motorcycle, the vial he got from Niske. Brian barely gives it a moment's thought before returning his attention to the road as the Man-Spider arrives at the _Daily Bugle_ and begins spreading chaos throughout the building. He kills many people there on the night shift, including his boss, J. Jonah Jameson, while the police arrive a few minutes behind the monster and enter the building to hunt him down. Brian and Bernie arrive less than a minute later on the bike, and in spite of their hurry, Brian takes a look at the vial Bernie took and ponders what it is. He then remembers the reaction Niske had when she found out that she was missing something when it came to fighting the Man-Spider, and Bernie suggests that it maybe used to cure him. Brian asks why that would be possible, for turning Man-Spider back into Peter Parker would be a good thing; something unbecoming of the Antichrist. Bernie also brings up that it could be that Ugly Kid wants Peter to live further to endure more torture, just as he had Peter go through in the aftermath of saving Aunt May by serving the Antichrist; Brian considers it, but nevertheless concludes that whatever the case, the vial needs to be destroyed. He tries to smash it on the ground, but it doesn't break. Brian then tries to open it up to get rid of the contents out into the sewers, but it still won't do.

Suddenly, Niske, Botya, and Majes ride in on the car they stole, and seeing Brian with the vial, Botya proceeds to run both him and Bernie over so that he and his friends can retrieve the vial. In haste, Brian throws it through a sewer grate before he and Bernie roll out of the way of the car. The three demons then abandon the car and enter the sewers to retrieve the vial while Man-Spider, fresh from killing several _Daily Bugle_ employees and cops, exits the_ Bugle_ by jumping out of a window and swinging off towards Forest Hills, Queens. Brian agrees to go after Man-Spider by stealing one of the cop cars while Bernie not only returns the motorcycle, but also retrieves their guns from the alley (he'll hail a cab over to Forest Hills).

At Forest Hills, Man-Spider is able to disappear through the suburbia of the area and discreetly enters the home of his Aunt May, though Brian, abandoning the police cruiser he stole, figures where his quarry could be and arrives there in advance . There, Man-Spider goes to his sleeping aunt to see her, and Brian attacks with a knife. May wakes up as Man-Spider and Brian fight, and, reacting in terror, screams and tries to run away. Her screams wake up the neighbours and alert the cops as to where Man-Spider could be. They track Man-Spider down just as May is able to escape her home in time, with Man-Spider and Brian now cornered by the police all around the perimeter of the house. At the same time as all this happens, Niske, Botya, and Majes were all able to locate the vial and return to their stolen car, killing the cops prepared to impound it, and drive off to Forest Hills (Niske interrogated the last surviving cop as to where Man-Spider could be before she killed him). Meanwhile, Bernie, having retrieved his own Heaven gun and Brian's, pays the cabbie extra to drive him to Forest Hills, even though it goes against the police's radio broadcast for all those outside the neighbourhood to stay away because of their search for the Man-Spider.

As the Man-Spider confronts and kills several of the cops who rush into Aunt May's home so that they could try and kill him, the showdown moves outside, where Man-Spider is able to evade the incoming bullets from the police blockade and kill several of them, including Officer Barr. Niske, Botya, and Majes arrive in the heat of the conflict, kill several cops themselves just as their attention is focussed onto Man-Spider, and the three demons get ever closer to the monster. Bernie arrives and fights Majes while Brian fights Botya, which distracts the two adolescents while Niske is able to confront Man-Spider head-on with the vial, now that all of the cops are either dead, unconscious, or absent because they took Aunt May back to the police station for her safety. Man-Spider and Niske get into a brief fight which Niske wins by opening up the vial and splashing the black liquid upon Man-Spider, which immediately reverts him back to Peter Parker. With that, Botya and Majes win their fights against Brian and Bernie, take their stolen car, and drive off just as the sun rises.

The episode ends with Peter, his head clearing mere moments after reverting back to normal, looks out among the scene of death and carnage he just caused. His thoughts are silent, numb about all that occurred, and he swings away; to where, and why, he hasn't figured out yet.


	11. Chapter 11

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2

Episode 11: The Ugly Kid Apocalypse: Part One

The episode starts off just after the events of _The Consequence_ and _Night of the Man-Spider_, where Peter Parker is swinging in broad daylight back to his apartment, almost naked since his costume was destroyed as the Man-Spider. He enters his apartment just as the remnants of the police, who have lost several cops since the previous night, corner his apartment. A squad of cops, led by Jean DeWolffe from Episodes 5 and 6, storm the apartment and rush into Peter's apartment, where he's waiting for them. But just as they have him completely surrounded, everyone turns to Peter's window to find the sky turning red. The same is happening all around the world much to everyone's curiosity, and to the angels' horror. Meanwhile, back atForest Hills, in the aftermath of the final confrontation with the Man-Spider, Brian and Bernie wake up and react in horror just as the other angels do. Then, suddenly, dark portals all across the reddened skies of the planet open up and unleash demons from Hell, who swoop in and begin killing everyone across the planet. Brian silently declares that this is the end. Meanwhile, Ugly Kid appears on the top of theEmpireStateBuilding and revels as he watches his apocalypse come about.

A few demons crash into Peter's apartment and kill all of the cops surrounding him by vaporizing them through touch, though they don't kill Peter himself. They leave, and he begins swinging across the city, looking in haste for Ugly Kid, hoping he could at least put up a futile effort to stop the Antichrist. Meanwhile, Brian and Bernie hotwire and steal a car as they're chased by several demons. As Brian drives, Bernie tries shooting the demons down with his and Brian's Heaven guns, but find that they have no effect upon the demons; so Brian continues driving on for the sake of himself and Bernie, trying to find a safe place from the end of the world… even though there is none.

At the New York Police Department, all of the cops, captives, and almost everyone else there are killed by the demons. The only one left to survive is Aunt May, who the demons deliberately allow her to live and escape to find some way to escape the UKA (Ugly Kid Apocalypse). Elsewhere, the angels' base in the church, recently doing damage control since Jeff's murder of Beatrice Lange and his suicide, are confronted by the invading demons. The angels try to put up a fight in the face of this onslaught, but in the end, they all lose as they're vaporized by the demons' touch.

Much of the episode shows how UKA (pronounced You-ka) is bringing about the end of the world. Billions of beings, human and non-human alike, all across the planet die by the hands of Ugly Kid's demons, completely powerless to defend themselves in spite of the world's advances in weaponry and technology in the face of this invulnerable supernatural menace. Every civilization and government is brought down by the demons, and when the demons aren't killing people, chaos and anarchy roam the streets. The show of UKA's destruction ends when Brian and Bernie's car ends up in a crash, and the demons chasing them finally catch up to them and kill them.

The episode culminates with Peter finding Ugly Kid atop of the EmpireStateBuilding, enjoying the death and destruction UKA is bringing about. The Antichrist then jumps off the top of the building and lands several hundred feet to the ground alive, showing just how truly powerful he is. He turns and finds Peter's Aunt May standing before him, and Peter swings in to stop the Antichrist from killing his aunt. But Ugly Kid is able to easily best Peter in combat as May is shocked to find out that her nephew is Spider-Man. Ugly Kid beats Peter up so badly that Peter can no longer move, then chases down Aunt May, which takes him seconds. He pins her to the ground, looks at her, and ends her life by using his power to have blood run from her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, just as he did to all of his victims at the airport in _Evil's Ugliness: Part One_. Peter, at the site of Ugly Kid torturing his aunt to death, has a rush of adrenaline to stop Ugly Kid, but the Antichrist bests him again, but allows him to look upon the corpse of his aunt for a while. Ugly Kid then completely immobilizes Peter permanently by stomping on his pelvic area, shattering his spine. The Antichrist then explains how he was able to bring about this apocalypse.

As it turns out, throughout the centuries, Ugly Kid had been accumulating enough power on Earth by absorbing all of the evil and negative emotions that humanity could produce. He was using all of his plans for world domination as a mere distraction to allay the suspicions of the angels who were hunting him. By the time his plans almost came into fruition, he found out, through Jeff's deliberate spying and Brian's inadvertent spying, about how Spider-Man could stop him when the time. So Ugly Kid delayed his plans for UKA by creating the Scorpion, who was meant to kill Spider-Man. When that plan failed with the Scorpion's death, Ugly Kid tried to have Spider-Man kill the man who murdered his Uncle Ben, Flint Marko, but that also failed because of Aunt May's interference. So Ugly Kid decided to try one more move; he would deliberately ruin his life to the point that God wouldn't even be on his side, which was what led to the events of _Evil's Ugliness_ and the consequent episodes; tricking Spider-Man into working for him to have the angels turn on him was the perfect plan. In _The Consequence_, Peter ultimately killing Harry for the death of Mary Jane was the point of no return for Peter, which assured that he would be no further threat to Ugly Kid's plans, as Peter ultimately gave in to the evil that was inside him. However, when Peter turned into the Man-Spider in the same night, Ugly Kid gave Niske, Botya, and Majes the antidote to cure his Man-Spider disease, as the Antichrist predicted through his powers that it would come about due to his genetically altered genes. The reason he wanted Peter to live and be cured was to allow him to fully embrace the horror of UKA in life and to ruin his life one last time, which was through killing Aunt May. So, with that, the Antichrist literally rips Peter's heart out and eats it as he watches Peter die off.

TO BE CONTINUED…


	12. Chapter 12

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2

Episode 12: The Ugly Kid Apocalypse: Part Two

The episode begins with ugly Kid killing Peter by ripping his heart out just at the end of the previous episode. After Peter dies, his soul is instantly transported to Hell, where he suffers unspeakable pain alongside billions of other people who have died in UKA. He also suffers this pain with all of his enemies, most of whom died during their conflicts against him, such as the Green Goblins, the Gaines Twins, and several others, and some of whom died during UKA. Peter is then taken out of this pain and brought to a volcanic ledge overlooking the infinitely and incomprehensibly large lava pool where all of the souls are suffering. Peter finds that he was saved by Jessica, Tyler, and Dillon, the three demons he previously met after his first fight with the Scorpion. Jessica tells Peter that she and her "fuckmates" (Tyler and Dillon), as she calls them due to her "activities" with them, will help him defeat Ugly Kid.

Jessica explains that at first, she and her fuckmates had been involved with Ugly Kid's plans to take over Hell and begin ruling all of reality since day one, as the Antichrist left them in charge of ruling Hell in his absence. However, as time passed, and Ugly Kid was gathering up energy to start his apocalypse of the world he was on, Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler became a little too comfortable as the supply rulers of Hell, and began concocting a plan to overthrow their ruler so that only they can rule Hell. The opportunity came after Uatu predicted that Spider-Man would kill Ugly Kid, and when the Antichrist began his plan that would ultimately lead to Peter Parker's demise in the midst of UKA, Jessica, Dillon, and Tyler all knew that he would lose. So they decided to help Peter by appearing to him after his first fight with the Scorpion to indicate that there was a relationship between the supervillain and Ugly Kid. Appearing before him was simply an introduction, and what they really did to help Spider-Man defeat the Scorpion was by manipulating Mary Jane's mind into appearing at the scene of Spider-Man's final fight with the Scorpion. As that led to the Scorpion's death, no one was the wiser about how Jessica and her fuckmates helped Spider-man, not even Ugly Kid.

The reason that Jessica and her fuckmates didn't allow Peter to die earlier than UKA was because his continued existence had bought the three of them some time to begin establishing a supernatural bridge between Heaven and Hell that stretched across the dimensions of reality, which they have now recently completed. Their plan to defeat Ugly Kid, which involves Peter, is to go to God and Uatu the Watcher and convince them to work with Jessica and her fuckmates to resurrect Peter and give him the power to defeat Ugly Kid; Jessica and her fuckmates can't do it alone without God and Uatu's power because bringing someone back to life with more power than before is something that must be granted by the rulers of Heaven, Hell, and the go-between of good and evil, which is Uatu. Knowing that they don't have much time now that Ugly Kid has begun UKA, Jessica and her fuckmates enter the supernatural bridge between Heaven and Hell, which they secretly constructed within the throne room of Hell, and they take Peter with them. However, all four of them are found out by Irima, one of the demons who were left behind in Hell to serve the will of Jessica and her fuckmates. Irima and his followers, who are still loyal to Ugly Kid, pursue Peter, Jessica, and her fuckmates to the bridge. There, the demons chase Peter and the demonic traitors throughout reality as the latter four try to make it to Heaven.

Eventually, in spite of Irima and his followers' efforts, Peter, Jessica, and her fuckmates make it to Heaven, where Uatu the Watcher is able to banish Irima and his followers back to Hell after Jessica quickly explains the situation to him. Uatu then summons God Himself from his duties of trying to right the wrongs caused throughout all of reality thanks to Ugly Kid overthrowing the Devil as the master of evil. Jessica explains the Ugly Kid Apocalypse to God and Uatu, who at first believe she is lying, as they were both unaware of what's happened. But Jessica and her fuckmates use their powers to show just how much destruction Ugly Kid has already committed on Earth; Jessica explains that it was because Ugly Kid's evil aura has polluted the Earth so much that God and Uatu both view it only by way of how the Antichrist wants it; hence, this explains why neither God nor Uatu are doing anything direct to stop Ugly Kid. And now, because UKA has come about, there is almost nothing that either God or Uatu can do, for the perforation of evil that the Antichrist has brought upon that world cancels out God and Uatu's powers. However, Jessica tells God and Uatu that the only way to stop Ugly Kid is to bring Peter back from the dead with the necessary power to kill Ugly Kid, for only an individual with the perfect strike between mortality and power can stop a supernatural being, like the Antichrist, who has so much power on one particular world. God and Uatu agree to this, but only after they accept that when Ugly Kid is defeated, Jessica and her fuckmates will retain control of Hell.

And so God, Uatu, Jessica, and her fuckmates use their collective powers to bring Peter back from the dead, ending up right back on the world from which he lived and died; and in his full Spider-Man costume on. So, with that, as he looks out upon the wasteland of New York that UKA has made, he vows that he will end this war against Ugly Kid once and for all…

TO BE CONCLUDED…


	13. Chapter 13

Spider-Man: The New Animated Series Season 2

Episode 13: The Ugly Kid Apocalypse: Part Three

The episode starts off with Spider-Man swinging around a post-apocalyptic New York City, trying to find Ugly Kid. Along the way, he comes into contact and kills several demons by utilizing the powers he got from the combined might of God, Uatu the Watcher, Jessica, and her fuckmates, and sends them all to Hell. There, Jessica and her fuckmates, who got back from Heaven just in time, manage to use the Entrapment of Hell to trap the incoming demons (the Entrapment of Hell was the supernatural contraption made by Ugly Kid himself for the purpose of trapping his father and his followers). Jessica and her fuckmates also threaten the demons left behind in Hell, including Irima, to vow loyalty to them; when Ugly Kid falls, as Jessica explains, she and her fuckmates will need demons of their own to serve them.

Eventually, after killing several demons, and finding pockets of survivors hiding all throughout New York in the Ugly Kid Apocalypse, Spider-Man finds the Antichrist himself standing on top of the Empire State Building, waiting for something. The superhero is then attacked by the combined forces of several demons, led by Niske, Botya, and Majes. But in spite of this, Spider-Man is able to overcome these odds and kill everyone of them before swinging over to the Empire State Building to fight Ugly Kid. There, the two of them launch into a fight that, thanks to the powers granted upon Spider-Man, is equalized. The conflict leads off of the Empire State Building and expands the desolate background of the city, destroying many of the city's remaining establishments that still remain. Meanwhile, in Heaven, the fight is viewed by God, Uatu, and many other people in Heaven, including Uncle Ben.

In the midst of the fight, Ugly Kid discerns that Jessica and her fuckmates betrayed him. So he manages to call upon all the demons remaining throughout the world to return to Hell and stop Jessica and her fuckmates from further entrapping them. The remaining demons return to Hell, and, since they're ready for it, they bypass the Entrapment of Hell to apprehend Jessica and her fuckmates and put them in the Entrapment of Hell. However, Irima convinces his followers that since Jessica forced them to go against Ugly Kid, the Antichrist will send them to the Entrapment of Hell even if they do turn back on his side; after all, since they didn't take the opportunity to stop Jessica and her fuckmates from activating the Entrapment of Hell against the Antichrist's demons, Ugly Kid won't look favourably upon them at all. So Irima and his followers cut their losses and join in with Jessica and her fuckmates to fight off the demons loyal to Ugly Kid in a battle in Hell; in the midst of combat, the winners of the battle send their losing opponents into the Entrapment of Hell. The conflict in Hell also becomes part of the attention in Heaven, as the future of all reality hangs in the balance. God and Uatu explain that they can't use the bridge that Jessica and her fuckmates made to go to Hell and help the treacherous demons against Ugly Kid's own because the bridge's supernatural structure was made only for demons to cross; neither the power of good, like God, or even the balance between good and evil, like Uatu, can use it.

Back on Earth, Spider-Man is losing the fight against Ugly Kid even with the added power given to him, and soon, Spider-Man is beaten down to a pulp. He then watches helplessly as Ugly Kid breaks into a nearby apartment and kills off all the hiding survivors there. The Antichrist mocks Spider-Man, saying that he couldn't use the power granted to him to stop him from killing not only those people, but also from being unable to prevent the UKA overall; as well as being responsible for his Uncle Ben's death, Indera Damunchi's death, Mary Jane's death, etc. But Uncle Ben, back in Heaven, manages to convince God and Uatu to grant him a few minutes down on Earth to speak a few important words to his nephew that will greatly help against Ugly Kid. Desperate, God and Uatu accept Ben's proposal and allow his spirit down on Earth.

Uncle Ben's spirit appears before Spider-Man, overshadowing the menacing loom of Ugly Kid, to remind him that in spite of all his failures, he can still rise up and move on to conquer the evils that threaten good. Spider-Man is instantly reminded of all the good he has done as a hero, along with Brian's words from the season premiere, when he reminded Peter that even with all the bad he's suffered, the good he brings about for others is what makes many look up to him as a hero. And with Uncle Ben's departing words, "With great power, there must also come great responsibility," Spider-Man rises up from his wounds and continues his fight with Ugly Kid.

With the added inspiration given to him by Ben's words, Spider-Man manages to temporarily gain the upper hand in the fight against the Antichrist. However, the fight is equalized again until it appears as if Ugly Kid will win again. Back in Hell, the demons on Jessica's side are losing the battle against Ugly Kid's forces, which brings a veil of dread over the watchers in Heaven; the future of all reality is still uncertain. However, as the fight between Spider-Man and Ugly Kid culminates on the top of Peter Parker's apartment building, Spider-Man sees that, like himself, Ugly Kid is now so severely weakened that he would be greatly affected by wounds that wouldn't have hurt him had Spider-Man not had his literally-God-given power (never mind the fact that Uatu and Jessica and her fuckmates contributed to this as well). So Spider-Man decides to make the ultimate sacrifice by managing to get the upper hand again in the fight, tackles Ugly Kid off the roof, and they both die upon landing on the ground.

There, from their bodies, two contrasting streams of light, white from Spider-Man and black from Ugly Kid, emerge and swirl about before the white light goes out in a bright white flash. The black light, meanwhile, is sucked right in to the nearest portal leading from Hell. In Hell, the black light is noticed by all the demons there, and Jessica is able to activate the Entrapment of Hell on time to suck in the black presence of Ugly Kid to trap him alongside his father and all the demons there. With that, all the remaining demons pledge their loyalty to Jessica and her fuckmates as the new official rulers of not only Hell, but also of evil. This happens just as the demons back on Earth return and, knowing that their ruler is gone now, also pledge allegiance to Jessica and her fuckmates.

On Earth, the survivors of UKA come out of hiding when they finally see that the apocalypse is over, with all the demons now gone. All the survivors look out upon the desolation of their world with the hope of rebuilding civilization.

In Heaven, Peter is brought in among a celebration, where he is treated as a true hero for defeating Ugly Kid. He comes in alongside the souls of all those whose souls were unfairly taken to Hell thanks to UKA, and he is greeted by Mary Jane, Indy, Uncle Ben, and several others; including Brian and Bernie. Peter embraces them all in happiness that he can finally rest in peace, knowing how much of a hero he is now regarded as.


End file.
